


Beneath a Moonless Sky

by HisAsgardianAngel



Series: Beneath a Moonless Sky Series [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angry Odin (Marvel), Asgard (Marvel), Domestic Avengers, Evil Nick Fury, Evil Odin (Marvel), F/M, Falling In Love, Frigga (Marvel) Feels, Frigga (Marvel) Lives, Loki Needs a Hug, Loki Redemption, Loki's Kids, Loki-centric, Manipulative Loki, Manipulative Nick Fury, Minor Frigga/Odin (Marvel), Mormonism, Nick Fury Lies, Nick Fury Swears, Nick Fury is Not Amused, Odin's A+ Parenting, Odin's Bad Parenting, Paganism, Parent Loki, Poor Loki, Possessive Loki, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Thor: The Dark World, Protective Frigga (Marvel), Protective Loki, Protective Thor, SHIELD, SHIELD Is Shady, Self-Hatred, Sneaky Frigga (Marvel), Thor Feels, Thor Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Top Loki, True Love, Unintentional Redemption, Warning: Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-27 03:46:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 40
Words: 89,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12573028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HisAsgardianAngel/pseuds/HisAsgardianAngel
Summary: Loki is reforming plans to take over Midgard when he meets Lanie, a quirky intern with a knack for adventure. But Lanie's love may not be enough to save the wounded god from himself, and Loki is slow to trust.  As Loki slips further and further into self hatred and doubt, he ponders whether  he will be able to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. and take his rightful place as king, or will the only thing good about his life be taken from him?





	1. Family Ties

There was a gloom settling into the abyssal unknown, the roots of Yggdrasil. There were many such passageways between one realm and the next, though no celestial line of voyage was as direct as the Bifrost. With the bridge shattered, however, and no guarantee that were it functional he’d be able to use it (damn Heimdall for all he was worth), Loki’s demeanor darkened with a slight scowl.

            He was down one infinity stone, having already lost the Tesseract in his failed attempt at conquering the realm he so violently looked on. He narrowed his dark sapphire eyes slowly, contemplating the amount of magic necessary to breech Midgard’s atmosphere. He’d done it before, sure, but that was Asgard. That was his home. He was unsure how much it would drain of him, how long it would take to recuperate.

            The god could not afford to be too slow in his taking of Earth. He no longer had the element of surprise, being known far and wide after the Battle of New York. He would have to blend in, and that would require a certain amount of shapeshifting talent that he may or may not possess if not at full capacity. But what choice had he who would be arrested the moment he lay foot in Asgard? He who had no other home save for the frosty wasteland he loathed more than he loathed himself? No, Midgard was his only shot at claiming his rightful place as king, and he knew that.

            What was done was done. Loki’s magic exploded from his body, an excruciating blast of energy breaking through the realms barrier. His scream was blood curdling, the over exertion wreaking havoc on his insides as his vision blurred and very soul was nearly torn from his body. There was a whirr of color, a flash bright enough to blind even Heimdall’s all seeing eye, and then suddenly…there was an eerie stillness as the new surroundings settled in around him.

            He knew not where he was, only that it was cold enough to see the shaky breaths being forced painfully from his lungs. He glanced around, eyes attempting to focus on what looked like a large city building before his legs gave out on him. He collapsed, hearing nothing but the faint sound of a female voice before he was immersed in blackest unconsciousness.

            The woman, whose concerned voice had rung in Loki’s ears, peered down at his limp body as it breathed shallowly on the snowy and damp sidewalk. She tucked a strand of long curly brown hair behind her ear and bent down to examine the body. She pressed a slender finger to the base of Loki’s neck, checking for pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief to find one, albeit faint.

            “Emily!” She shouted over her shoulder, looking frantically from the god to the building behind her. Her best friend was a waitress at the family restaurant off to the left of the street, and Loki had fainted close enough to the establishments double doors that anyone inside could have heard her panicked cries. It was late in the evening, around closing time, and therefore easy for Emily to rush from the dining room out into the night air, startled at the sound of her friend’s shouts.

            “Lanie? What the hell is going on out here? Are you okay?” When her friend didn’t answer, Emily peered around Lanie’s body, molten grey eyes widening as she realized that there was a man in need of medical attention laying unresponsive on the hard concrete.

            “O-Oh my God…I’ll call 911!” Emily’s trembling hands clamored for her Android, struggling to type in her passcode as she heard a roar of protest bellow out from behind her.

            “STOP!”

            Emily dropped her phone, startled, breath knocked clean out of her as she very slowly turned on her heels. There was an incredibly large man standing adjacent to the restaurants open doors, long blonde hair pulled into a half braid, and an expression written in his eyes that made her fear for her life.

            “I beg of you, tell no one who you saw here today. I must drag my brother home.” His accent was thick, tone grave. Lanie exchanged a frightened glance with Emily, looking back down at the drained god sleeping troubledly in her arms. She didn’t know who he was, but he was in no condition to be ‘dragged’ anywhere.

            “If he’s your brother, have a care. He’s very ill, I think he needs medical attention.” Lanie said, large brown eyes studying the tall male who was towering over her friend. He was heavily armored, like his brother, and his blue eyes were both piercing and gentle. It was off-putting. She grimaced. “Did you guys just come from a Renaissance Faire or something? Did he eat something he was allergic too? You’re gonna have to give me some answers, because I’m calling an ambulance whether you like it or not.”

            “Do you not know who this is? If he were hospitalized in this realm—”

            Loki very suddenly and very quietly let out an icy chuckle, much to the shock of both women huddled protectively around him. “It is unlike you to argue with a lady, Thor.” He couldn’t quite move, but the sneer on his face was more than evident, even as he lay there. Emily’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

            “Thor? Like the…Norse deity?”

            Thor’s brow furrowed in confusion, taking a step toward both the girls and his brother, who was beginning to stir slightly. “What do you mean? I am…Thor, god of Thunder, most handsome member of the Avengers,” He explained, throwing a hint of a smirk toward Emily, who turned as red as her hair. Loki snorted, though pain radiated through his chest and it was followed by a long, pitiful groan.

            “Of course, I am lying here engulfed in my own torment and your only concern is what some lowly human woman thinks of you. What have I to be surprised about?”

            Thor rolled his eyes, looking down on his brother as the frost giant struggled to sit. Lanie supported his waist, earning a half smile that didn’t quite meet Loki’s shimmery eyes. “Brother, I must return you to your cell. I do not know what you hoped to accomplish here, but we knew the moment you were gone. Did you think we wouldn’t notice? That _Heimdall_ would not notice?”

            Loki sneered, slapping Laine’s hands away as he feebly attempted to push himself to his feet. He fell again, body drained of too much energy to support his weight. He cursed under his breath. “Why would you? You never paid me notice before.” His tone was accusatory and biting, Thor blanching as he turned his face away from his brother’s intense gaze.

            “Loki, you know that isn’t true. You’re my—”

            “Don’t. We aren’t brothers, Thor. We never were.”

            The atmosphere had turned hostile quickly, and both Emily and Lanie were looking awkwardly at one another. The tension could have been cut with a knife, and neither woman was quite sure what the hell was going on. Lanie very gently reached for Loki’s hand, in comfort, as she could feel the stress in his body language. He rejected her hand again, gently this time, brushing it away as he continued to fight his own injuries.

            “I didn’t ask for your pity.” His words were vicious, but they seemed to lack conviction and fizzled out as he leaned against her for support. He hated himself for requiring it, but despite his cruelty she did not move and allowed him to lay his head against her torso. Lanie sighed.

            “Maybe not. But for right now you need it, so answer my friend. Who are you? What is this about Norse gods?”

            Loki opened his mouth to retort snidely, but it was Thor who spoke first. His demeanor was confused, worried. He didn’t seem to like the idea that they didn’t know who he was, it made him uneasy.

            “Maiden, I do not understand. The Avengers were all over the news when New York was destroyed. Stark Tower was nearly decimated at ground zero, and the man you coddle so tenderly murdered eighty people in two days. You might care to move out of reach.” He warned, glancing wearily at the affectionate way in which she kept Loki’s body steady in her arms. Lanie ignored him.

            Emily shook her head, as if to clear it, and held her hands up in frustration. “You aren’t making sense; Stark Tower hasn’t even finished construction yet. The only so called ‘Avengers’ I’m aware of are Tony Stark and Steve Rogers…”

            Thor turned to Loki to see what the other god made of the situation, but he’d faded back into unconsciousness. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “That’s…splendid. I do not know what to do.” Emily offered him a shy smile, gesturing toward BTM (berør tordenhullet mitt, her Norwegian restaurant).

            “Hey, my dad owns the place, let’s just take Loki inside and let him lay down for a few hours, okay? Whatever happened, he’s really hurt. We can talk about all this inside. Say, over coffee?”

            Thor smiled. “I will not forget your kindness.”

            Laine was running her fingers through Loki’s long black hair, concern plastered all over her face. He was beautiful…peaceful. She wondered why the stranger had so much anger and loathing in his heart. What had the world done to him? She was plucked from her thoughts when Thor walked over and cleared his throat softly.

            “May I?” Lanie wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but she didn’t truly have a say. Without another word, Thor scooped his brother into his arms, and the trio walked into BTM in silence. Loki was out for the count, but unbeknown to him he’d just laid the foundation for a storm of Biblical proportions. Whatever it was that was happening, Thor knew it wasn’t good, and it would only be a matter of time before SHIELD got involved. Of one thing Thor was absolutely certain…the Avenger’s needed to assemble immediately.          


	2. Stark Solutions

            Lanie and Emily had taken the Gods back to their apartment, and while Emily was attempting to work things out with Thor in the kitchen, Lanie was tending to Loki, who was laying passed out on the vacant side of her bed. She was pressing a warm cloth to his forehead, and quietly admiring how handsome his features were. His breathing was shallow, and she prayed for him as she pulled her covers up and over his frail body.

            Emily was pouring Thor a cup of tea. She had been more than pleased when he’d asked for a glass, as usually she was the only one in the house who could drink tea and coffee; Lanie was Mormon. Thor guzzled the sweet liquid down quickly, politely asking for another before she’d even placed the jug back in the refrigerator. She laughed.

            “A man after my own heart, I see. I get pretty thirsty myself.”

            Thor smiled at her, blue eyes seeming to drink her in as she concentrated on keeping him hydrated. He thought she was beautiful, from her bouncy red curls down to her spontaneously dusted freckles. And her eyes…well, Thor had never seen such a lovely shade of grey.

            “So, tell me, Emily. What is there to know of you?”

            She hummed, thinking for a moment before responding. “Hmm, not much. My name is Emily Elizabeth Ramsey, my dad’s a chef. The world seems to think he’s a big deal, but really, he’s just a walking Dad Joke like everyone else’s. He’s from England, we moved to Brooklyn after my mother died when I was young. She was Norwegian, met my father on a culinary cruise. I’m waitressing at their restaurant while I’m going to college, dad won’t let me take over without a degree…because he sucks.” She mumbled with a chuckle. “What about you?”

            “My story is a little…complicated. Technically I am supposed to be the king of Asgard, but I blew that about a year or two ago. I was foolish, arrogant, and my father decided I was unfit to rule. Nothing could please my brother more, I assure you, but he’s…well, he’s even less a king than I. We haven’t exactly made our father proud.” He explained sadly, casting his eyes downward. “What concerns me most is that you don’t know why, you have no idea what Loki did or what he is capable of. How many people don’t remember, and why? This is dangerous.”

            Emily reached across the table and laid her hand atop Thor’s arm in comfort. He visibly relaxed, sliding his arm down so that her hand fell in line with his, his fingers curling around her own. She blushed a dark, deep purple, and a smirk crept across his face. “You’re too kind.”

            “I…I have an idea,” She said slowly, attempting to shake off the nervous excitement now radiating throughout her body.  “What if we went to go see Mr. Stark? I mean, if anyone knows what’s going on it’s probably him. He might as well own the city.”

            In the back bedroom, Loki began to open his eyes slowly. There was a warmth all around him, a sense of security he was not accustomed to. A low, throaty laugh passed his lips, startling the girl at his bedside. He knew exactly who was there. “And now she fusses over me like a doting wife. Who are you, what do you want from me?”

            His drawl was sarcastic, and it made her face heat up in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to hover, it’s not my intent. It’s just that my mother was a nurse, so, I guess I’ve always had a knack for healing. I’m an English major, but I’m pre-med.” She explained, avoiding the intense gaze she felt washing over her entire body. “My name is Alaine Fenton, but most people call me Lanie. And…you?”

            “I am Loki, of Asgard. You were foolish to keep me here. You coddle a murderer like he’s a fawn, let him sleep in your own bed. You’re a stupid, stupid woman.” His words were biting, but his eyes were alight with humor, as if he thought she was funny. Lanie cocked her head to the side, trembling slightly as she inched backward.

            “Who have you killed?”

            Loki couldn’t hold back the boom of laughter bubbling in his chest. “You withdraw your hands from me, and rightfully so, yet you stay and calmly ask who? Pretty lackadaisical for a _doctor_ of all people.”

            Lanie shrugged, feeling very little fear in his presence, though she was sure there was something wrong with her. Her intuition was usually pretty good, she didn’t think he was going to hurt her. Her eyes softened a bit, and she sighed. “I dunno. I guess maybe I’ve just seen too much death. But I tend to believe that anyone is capable of salvation, so if you’re implying that I should be afraid of you you’re sorely mistaken. I’m not.”

            That appeared to be the wrong move. His eyes darkened, and having regained much of his physical strength, he slid off the bed and grabbed her by her wrists hard. His robust arms forced her body closer, faces inches apart as his demeanor twisted into a menacing sneer. “Oh? You should be.” Magic teemed at his fingertips, though he hissed under his breath in aggravation. Apparently only his physical body was back at full capacity.

            “Loki! Unhand her!” Thor bellowed, pushing through the door heavily and snarling at his brother. Emily was on his heels, having heard the commotion all the way from the kitchen. Loki shot Thor a wild, furious glare, but his grip on Lanie slowly lessened until she was able to wiggle out of his iron fists. She huffed.

            “You could have just asked me to be quiet if that’s what you wanted. No need for physicality.” She mumbled, a pout settling on her face as Loki looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

            “What?” He asked stupidly, blinking at the short girl as if she’d grown a third eye. Lanie only shrugged in response and Emily and Thor exchanged weary glances.

            “Um, Emily had an excellent suggestion, if you two are done with…whatever was going on in here.”

Emily nodded slowly, staring nastily at Loki, though she held her tongue. Lanie didn’t appear to be hurt, and they were going to need everyone’s cooperation if they meant to drive all the way into the city. “We need to go to Manhattan, now. Near Midtown. I think Tony Stark might be able to help us figure out what’s going on here.”

Lanie’s face light up immediately. “I can get us into Stark Tower. I’m one of his paid interns, I have security clearance.”

Loki lifted his eyebrows in curiosity. “Ah, so the small one is decent for something after all.”

Lanie flinched and Thor sighed tiredly. “Loki, she’s kept you alive for the last few hours. The least you can do is thank her.”

Loki snorted. “I did. She’s still breathing, isn’t she? Now are we traveling or not?”

            The four of them walked out to Emily’s navy blue Jeep Wrangler, Loki’s nose scrunching up as he thought upon the giant hunk of machinery. He wasn’t sure how the confounded things worked, though he’d seen plenty of them during his last stay in Midgard. Thor didn’t’ seem to give the vehicle much thought, and was the first to eagerly clamor into the passenger’s seat. He’d been in cars before, and he had been run over by his ex on more than one occasion. He laughed at the memory.

            Emily was driving, and that left Lanie and Loki to begrudgingly climb into the backseat. They were touching, as the backseat was smaller than the front, and they rode in an uncomfortable silence for several miles before Lanie finally turned to take a peek at him. He was staring miserably out the window, and his lithe body was bouncing around like a ragdoll. It made her giggle. He turned at the sound of her gentle laughter, raising an eyebrow. For once, he didn’t look as if he entirely hated her.

            “What?”

            Lanie shrugged. “You should probably put on your seatbelt if Emily is going to continue going thirty over the speed limit.” She said, emphasizing the last bit loudly as she shot her friend a playful smile. Emily flipped her off in the rearview mirror. Loki couldn’t help the smirk that curled at the corner of his lips.

            “And what, fair one, would a seatbelt be?” His tone was soft, voice like velvet. It made Lanie flush from her cheeks all down her neck. Where the hell had ‘fair one’ come from? She thought he hated her. He seemed to like the reaction it roused, and she knew instantly that he’d done it on purpose, to get a rise out of her. It worked. Without another word Lanie slid closer to him, grabbing the thick grey fabric and pulling it over his body, undoing hers so she could properly reach. About the time she got him buckled, Emily sped over a large pot hole, and Lanie’s head slammed hard against the glass of Loki’s door.

            Loki didn’t ask if she was okay, but he didn’t need to. His hands flew into her hair, and he tilted her face toward him. His green eyes seemed to race around her features, scanning for any damage. For a split second, though she knew it was wishful thinking, she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, when he was sure she wasn’t injured, he pushed her off of him and against the hard leather of her own door. He didn’t even look back at her as her back slapped the glass.

            “You’re fine.”

            Tears welled in Lanie’s eyes, but she bit her lip in an attempt to hold it in. Refusing to look at him, she curled up in her seat in silence, and stayed that way until they finally pulled into one of the many parking decks at Stark Tower. She knew Loki must have noticed that her feelings were hurt, she could feel his eyes on her…they had been for several miles. When Emily took the keys out of the ignition, he finally piped up once more.

            “I really get under your skin, don’t I?”

            Lanie shot him the meanest glare she could muster, though the hatred in her eyes didn’t linger long. She wasn’t a spiteful person. “Not as much as I seem to get under yours.” She spat, getting out of the car and slamming her door. Loki opened his mouth to retort, but Lanie held up her work badge.

            “I’d be quiet if you want my help.”


	3. Stark Solutions Pt. II

Laine expected Loki to glare or say something nasty at the sound of her quip, but he didn't. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips, seemingly more amused than angry. She was relieved. Loki thought for a moment, eyeing the girl curiously as he pondered their next move.

"Okay, if you think you're so smart. How do you intend to sneak me passed the guards? You may be an intern, but your little pass isn't going to get Loki, of Jotunheim, into Stark Tower. Oh no, I suspect I'd be shot at on sight."

It was Emily's turn to snark.

"You claim to be a God, no? Figure it out."

Loki's jaw set, and Thor fought laughter, looking on his brother with an apologetic smile. "Let it go, Loki. You've magic enough to bend your shape at will, you've done it to me a thousand times over."

Loki glowered darkly, grinding his teeth as he spoke. "If I could pull that sort of magic now, do you think we'd be having this conversation?"

Lanie thought deeply for a moment. "Yes, well, I thought no one remembered who you were so..."

Thor exhaled and shared a weary glance with his brother. "No, Loki's right. Just because you don't remember does not mean SHIELD doesn't. I technically work for them and I would not trust them as far as I could throw them. I think it wise if Loki stays behind."

"Not a chance in hell." Loki mumbled, folding his arms across his chest. He seemed annoyed, but there was no bite to his words, and Thor rolled his bright blue eyes at him.

"You say that as if we have a choice. It's not as if you could magic yourself into the building." The minute those words passed Thor's lips, a smirk began to creep up the corners of Loki's mouth, and Thor didn't like it one bit. He narrowed his eyes, holding up a hand in protest. "Whatever you're scheming, the answer is no."

"You say that as if we have a choice." Loki mocked, throwing Thor's words back in his face with a gleeful smile. Thor frowned deeply, though he made no further attempt to protest as Loki ruminated on whatever he was cooking up inside his head.

"I may not yet be strong enough to change forms, but it takes very little effort on my part to astral project. Think of it, brother, you've seen me do it. You know I am capable. I'll even agree to being locked up in this Midgardian hunk of scrap for an hour or so, just as long as I can have a word with Stark, that is all I ask."

Thor studied Lanie for a moment, pondering his brother's words. Her deep brown eyes were staring at Loki intently, as if trying to figure him out...understand what game it was that he was playing. He pitied her for even trying, it was more than he was willing to do these days.

"Lanie and I can get into the building physically, and perhaps Emily should stay here with Loki, if you wouldn't mind it. I'm not as stupid as he thinks me to be, I will not leave him out here alone." Emily nodded.

"I can keep an eye on him, you two see what you can dig up." Thor smiled happily at her words, nodding in agreement and clamoring out of the car, walking around to open Lanie's door for her. She took one last, slightly salty glance at Loki, and slid out of the vehicle. When they heard Emily lock the car behind them, the pair walked toward Stark Tower in an awkward silence. Thor glanced at her a few times, trying to think of something useful to say as he watched her scan her card to enter the building.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

Lanie shrugged her shoulders. "No, I've taken worse than a shove here and there, but thank you. Your brother is...off, a bit, isn't he?" She asked, choosing her words carefully. She didn't want to offend him. Thor laughed.

"That is...one way of putting it. Why have you any interest in Loki? You needn't have looked after him like you did, he'd have been alright."

Lanie looked down at her hands, a half smile gracing her features, though it didn't quite meet her eyes. She thought about her answer as they walked the winding, immaculate hallways. She'd been working for Stark so long it was like second nature, weaving through SHIELD agents and employee's alike, though something was noticeably off today. Seemed like Stark was redecorating, though the building was freshly constructed to her knowledge. That was weird. She hummed. "I like helping people. I'm going to be a doctor one day, and my mother was a CNA. I learned everything I know from her. He looked like he was in so much pain...I don't care if I don't know him. I couldn't stand it."

"That is kind of you. Loki could use an ounce of kindness, even if he doesn't deserve it. So, thank you." Thor admitted quietly, catching her off guard. She looked at him, eyes wide in a bit of surprise, but she didn't have the opportunity to ask him what he meant. They were nearing the elevator, and she knew even interns needed special clearance to reach the penthouse, where Mr. Stark stayed, and she didn't have that kind of access.

"Um...here's the thing, I don't actually know how to—" Thor cut her off, holding out his hand to her.

"We are friends from work, he'll let me up. Allow me to see your phone please, I'll send him an electronic letter." Lanie knotted her eyebrows together in confusion.

"You mean...an email? How is he going to know it is you?"

Thor shrugged. "He always knows it is me, I don't have a phone of my own." Lanie looked like she wasn't sure, but she handed the phone over to Thor slowly, praying that whatever he was going to say or do wasn't going to get her fired. Just because he claimed to be an Avenger didn't mean he was one.

Back in the car, Loki and Emily seemed to be having an intensely awkward encounter of their own. Loki was concentrating on astral projecting, but he was having a difficult time coaxing the magic out of him. It was beginning to piss the God off, he didn't remember it taking this long for him to recuperate the last time he pushed his magic too far. Then again, he'd been relying on the Tesseract for help, and unfortunately, that was locked away deep inside Asgard's vault. He sincerely regretted not nabbing it on his way out.

"You there, woman. Help me out here."

Emily raised an eyebrow slowly, blinking at him for a second or two before ignoring him entirely and going back to reading on her phone. "I have a name." Loki rolled his eyes.

"Oh yes, what is it they called you...Emmie?" Emily blanched and scrunched up her nose.

"No, just Emily." Loki pretended like he hadn't heard her, though his small satisfied grin gave him away.

"Yes, as I said,  _Emmie_ , I require assistance." She mentally gagged at the thought that he might be flirting with her; he was  _not_ the brother she found attractive in the slightest. This one was rude and...greasy.

"Listen, you might get under Lanie's skin with your little mind games, but I'm not her. I'm not impressed, and I'm not interested."

Loki burst into amused laughter. "Ouch, aren't you the feisty one? I am not here to flatter you, nor the shy one. I am here for one purpose only, and right now, I need your help to do it." Emily almost didn't want to ask, but now she was curious.

"What is it exactly that you need me to do?" Loki's grin only widened.

"I'm so glad you asked. My magic needs a little nudge, I'm afraid. I can feel it growing, it just needs a little incentive." He explained, though he could tell by the look on her face that she was  _not_ liking the direction this was headed. He laughed again, a low, mischievous laugh. "Get your mind out of the gutter, it's nothing like that. There are three types of magic in this world, that is the first thing any good sorcerer will teach you. Personal energy, dimensional energy, and universal energy. I cannot tap into dimensional energy, that is what got me in this situation in the first place, and to use universal energy I would have to be in Asgard. I may need you to lend me personal energy, if I am to do this correctly. Mine own is dwindled."

Emily stared at him. None of what he said was making sense...and she was frightened of what it might mean for her. She barely knew this man, and she wasn't willing to do anything too out there on the off chance that he was as crazy as she suspected he was. When she didn't respond right away, he sighed.

"Look, if I use too much of my own personal energy, it will prove fatal. That is true of any being who relies too heavily on the magic that comes directly from within them. All I would need from you is a little of your blood. Just a pinch ought to do."

That was all Emily needed to hear. "Nope, uh-uh. You can forget it, I'm out. I don't care what I promised Thor, I'm going to wait for them outside, I can't sit in this car with you." She went to reach for the door handle, but Loki sat up, reaching from his place in the backseat to grab hold of her arm.

"Please? Look, I'm not demanding, I'm asking...nicely. Just a few drops...just to give me an edge. I swear, I'm not trying to bring you harm. I just need inside that building, and I need you to trust me."

"Your brother doesn't make it seem like you're very trustworthy at all." Loki flinched slightly, hoping she wouldn't notice, but she did.

"He wouldn't." He said with a sigh of resignation. "But my brother would also help me when I needed it. No matter how far I ever pushed him."

Emily chewed on her lip for several minutes, her breathing becoming rapid and shallow as she tried to figure out what to do. On one hand, Loki was freaking her out, and she didn't have any obligation to help these people, but on the other, if they were telling the truth, she really did want to know what was going on, and why she couldn't remember anything. Who wouldn't want to know that? Against her better judgement, she shakily offered her arm to Loki. He smiled a grateful, genuine smile, and very lightly cut a line in both of their palms, threading their fingers together, and mixing the blood between the two.

Thor and Lanie had just stepped in to Tony's office. Thor was looking smug, happy that his 'electronic letter' had done the trick. Lanie had a sneaking suspicion that Stark knew the emails were from Thor because he talked so damn funny, but she kept that to herself, save for a tiny chuckle under her breath. Tony looked busy, sitting at a large mahogany desk and going over what looked to be paperwork. He seemed miserable.

"You know, normally I'd have Pepper doing this and I'd be downstairs having a martini, but  _no_ , of course not, she's out being helpful with  _Phil_." He complained, looking up lazily from his work and shooting Thor a dear-god-please-kill me sort of look. Thor laughed.

"Would you not rather have one of your employees do it?"

Tony snorted, kicking his feet up on his desk and lounging back in his office chair. "Obviously, but I can't trust any of them with this sort of information. I'm working on converting this tower into something a little more—"

"Practical?" Thor interjected, looking around in amusement at how unnecessary and lavish the tower was. Everyone knew Stark Industries was booming, regardless of having a fancy headquarters that screamed Tony's name to the sky—well, everyone knew that except apparently Tony.

"I was going to say super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot, but sure, 'practical' is cool too I guess." Tony drawled sarcastically, an arrogant smirk nestled into the corners of his lips. "No, but, as much as I hate to admit it, the show isn't all about me anymore. The Avengers are going to need a place to reside when we are out...well, avenging. And what better place than here? I have the world at my fingertips, I'm more than capable of turning this tower into a high security and highly personalized—" Thor held up his hand to silence his friend.

"Stark, I mean no disrespect, but I came here for your help."

Tony sat up, an only half interested gaze looking both Thor and Lanie up and down. He made a broad gesture with his hand. "Sure, fine then, don't listen about my cool fancy plans for the tower, or the bedroom I was going to have specially made for your hammer." He teased, Thor's eyes lighting up as he glanced down at Mjolnir.

"What about my hammer?" Lanie slapped him playfully on his chest and the God shook the thoughts from his head, making a conscious effort to wipe the grin off his face. "Err, no, right. Focus. I have to talk to you about New York."

That seemed to catch Tony's attention, and he opened his mouth to say something when Loki's astral self finally decide to shimmer into the room. Tony was out of his seat and calling for JARVIS faster than anyone had time to blink.

"No, no, no, Stark...you do not want to do that. Calm yourself, he would only speak with you." Tony shot Thor an incredulous look.

"Speak with me? How the hell is he even here?"

Loki put his hands up in a form of surrender, though his shit-eating expression was hard to conceal. "I am not here. See?" He stuck his own arm through his stomach, proving the illusion to be false. "Do you understand? I cannot harm you. I am still in Asgard. I have only questions." He lied, glancing around the room at everyone carefully. He wasn't sure if Tony was buying it, his dark chocolate eyes were staring him down hard.

"Thor, I'm gonna need you to explain. Now."

The God sighed, attempting to think of the right thing to say. He shrugged his broad shoulders, looking on his friend with an exasperated expression. "Well, about New York..."              


	4. Agent Coulson Lives!

Tony raised an incredulous eyebrow, glancing around the room slowly.

“What about it?”

Loki rolled his ocean coloured eyes in annoyance. He was not in the mood for game playing. “Do not play ignorant with me, Anthony Stark. I did my research. I know you are the weapons and tech expert of my brothers little ‘team’. Tell me what you did.”

Tony blinked stupidly at Loki for a few moments, before turning his bewildered gaze toward his friend. “You got any idea what he’s talking about, Point Break?”

Thor sighed. Loki had no tact. “What my brother meant, is that this realm is under some form of duress, and we know not what has caused it. The people do not remember New York.”

“This one,” Loki added, gesturing toward Lanie. “Is under the impression that your precious tower finished construction only this month.”

Tony nodded, letting out a huff as if this information was blatantly obvious. “Clearly, after someone oh so rudely destroyed my last one.”

Lanie’s expression twisted, allowing it to settle in that the men that had been in her company were not lying after all. This had really happened, and these people had memories that were missing from her own mind. The thought frightened her. Her brain could not comprehend all the additional information, and when she met Loki’s eyes, they were shining with frustrated tears. Loki looked on her for a long moment, saying nothing at all. He studied her, intrigued by the emotional state she found herself in. Why did she care? He intended to find out.

“I told you.” He said softly, tilting his head to the side curiously as she whispered, “I believed you.”

Tony shook his head wildly. “Would someone like to tell me what the fuck is going on here?” Loki took this as his opportunity to press her further.

“Yes, do tell him, Lanie. You have the floor.”

She bit her lip, cursing him mentally as she rushed to collect her thoughts. She didn’t want to look stupid in front of Tony Stark, of all people. She wasn’t entirely sure what bothered her most; the fact that there were Norse Gods who were definitely real and tangible, which shook her faith more than she’d like to admit, or the fact that someone had wiped precious memories from her mind, which was an invasion of the most basic of her human rights. She frowned.

“I’m just...I need a moment. Did you really kill as many people as Thor says you did?” She asked, Loki’s eyes dimming as he thought about the question. If he hadn’t known any better Thor might have actually thought he looked remorseful. The look didn’t suit him, though Lanie would have disagreed. His wide blue eyes looked like a wounded puppy.

“I...might have. Sort of. I mean not personally, but there were a few casualties…” He admitted sheepishly, taken off guard as she looked as if she were going to vomit. She refused to meet his gaze after that.

“Get out of that car. You are in there with my best friend, and I want you out.” Hurt flashed across his face briefly, not expecting the sudden judgement from her, but it faded as quickly as it came. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but all of a sudden, his connection was lost, and he opened his eyes back in the car. He shot a bewildered look at Emily, who gave him a half-dazed smile.

“Oops...I didn’t know I couldn’t let go…”

“Oh, for the love of—” Loki grabbed hold of Emily’s hand roughly, fizzling back into view in Starks cramped office space. “Sorry, Emily isn’t as…responsive as she could be right now.”

Lanie narrowed her eyes at him. “Why is that?”

Loki shrugged, uninterested in explaining himself to her. He’d felt judged enough for one evening. Tony cracked a smirk.

“I think you hurt his feelings.”

Lanie glared daggers at Tony, who put his hands up defensively with a laugh. Tony wasn’t sure what was going on exactly, but he thought it was fucking hilarious, whatever it was. “Listen lady, I don’t really—” He trailed off, attention scattering elsewhere as there was a loud buzz over the intercom on his desk.

“Mr. Stark, is it alright if I come in? There is an agent here to see you.”

Tony rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “Anne, honey, just call me Tony at work, it’s weird. Send whoever it is up.” Tony had a hunch, but he really didn’t want to think about seeing a certain SHIELD agent right now, who had begun to see Pepper as more than just a friend. Stark may have been married to someone else now, but he would likely always have lingering feelings for Pepper Potts. He was lost in these thoughts when the click-clack of heels on the tile floor demanded everyone’s attention. A tall, slender brunette woman in a black pencil skirt walked in on the arm of none other than Phil Coulson himself. Tony scowled deeply.

“Thank you, Annie.” He said with a curt nod, though Thor looked on both Coulson and Anne with a large, warm smile. Thor had not been around to see Phil recover, and his entire demeanor lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Son of Coul, you live to see another day I see. I am glad of it.” He said sincerely, a bit of a pout crossing Loki’s lips.

“Ah, I remember you. I left you to die near this very tower…pity it didn’t work.” He snarked, grumbling to himself as everyone in the room decided to pay him no mind. Loki hated nothing more than he hated being ignored.

Anne shot her husband a disgusted look. The two of them had met after he’d rescued her from a burning building during the Battle of New York, and they had been wed a mere thirteen months later. “Who does he think he is? A friend of yours?”

That was when it finally sunk in for Tony. He turned wide, bewildered eyes to his wife. “What? How do you not remember who this is?”

Loki decided to pipe up, begging for attention. “Yes, I’d like to know how anyone could forget a face like this.” He shot Lanie a sideways glance and she pretended not to notice. Oh, but he was watching her reaction. His smirk grew.

When Anne didn’t respond, Tony reframed the question. “Annie, baby, do you remember how we met? Think hard about it.” Tony looked as if he were about to cry when her face scrunched up in shame and confusion. She didn’t have to say it, it was obvious that she didn’t remember. He ran one of his rough, calloused hands through his thick brunette hair and looked gravely over at Thor.  “You’re right, they really don’t remember.”

Loki sneered. “Oh, you won the prize, I didn’t even notice that.”

Lanie chewed on her lip for a moment, and though she cringed to do so, she nodded in agreement. “Loki is right. Could we please get some answers?” She shifted her gaze to Agent Coulson, who was standing with squared shoulders and a tight jaw. Somehow, she didn’t think she was going to get many answers out of him, but she owed it to herself to try, her mind was reeling. “Do the rest of these so-called Avengers remember? Do you?”

Phil never missed a beat and his reply was cagey. “Yes.” They all waited for more, but it was slowly becoming obvious that weaseling information out of a SHIELD operative wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

“Yes what?” Tony finally asked in exasperation.

“Yes, the rest of the Avengers remember, and yes, I do. SHIELD remembers everything and knows everything, that is all I am at liberty to say.”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “Then why did you even come? What do you want?”

“Director Fury—” Phil was cut off by a loud sigh of irritation from the bored Frost Giant in the corner. The only thing Loki hated more than being ignored was boredom, and these dull excuses for lifeforms were talking themselves in circles. Nothing was getting accomplished at this rate. What cared he about the eye-patched man? This was pointless.

“Not to say that I’m not having the time of my life…but, I’m not. This conversation is getting me nowhere. Tell me what I want to know before—” And there the connection went again, fading into Emily’s old Jeep Wrangler. “Goddamn it, Emily, you—” Loki trailed off, realizing she’d only let go because she passed out. _Oh, for fucks sake, is she dead?_ He thought to himself, poking at her neck for a few moments to check for a pulse. He was relieved to have found one, and he quickly ripped his forest green cloak from his shoulders, fanning her with it gently. _Wake up, wake up, wake up!_

Meanwhile, Tony narrowed his chocolate brown eyes at Thor and Lanie, as if he were just beginning to put two and two together. “Wait a second. Did you say a moment ago that Loki was in the car with someone? I thought he was in Asgard, in his cell, Thor.” He accused, a weary look in his eyes as Thor put his head in his hands.

“Son of a bitch.” Thor swore under his breath, throat seizing up with panic as Agent Coulson pressed his earpiece to alert the other SHIELD agents on the base. “Please do not make me hurt you, my brother means you no harm this day, I am taking him back to his—” Thor stopped mid sentence, caught off guard as an agent kicked the door in, a bullet whizzing by his face a little too close for comfort. “Well, then. If you insist.” Thor called upon Mjolnir, and Lanie took her opportunity to run. She pushed passed the blonde God, sprinting to the elevator and swiping her keycard.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, open you piece of shit!” She chanted, body shaking as she slipped inside and mashed the close button a thousand times. She didn’t know why she was doing this, there was so much going through her head as the elevator all too slowly slid down the many, many floors of Stark Tower. She was frightened, she didn’t want to die, and Loki needed an escape. She didn’t know why she wanted to help him, she was afraid of him, but at the same time she was _more_ afraid of the people upstairs, and she didn’t think he deserved to die.

“LOKI!” She screamed, running out of the building as the doors of the lift pushed opened, her legs pumping faster and faster as she bolted toward the car. “Loki go, get out of here now!”

The God rose his eyebrows at her, laying the cloak over Emily’s passed out body and hoping her friend wouldn’t notice. “Still mad at me, are you?”

Lanie shook her head furiously. “No, no, not mad, just go! They’re going to come after you, okay, creepy agent guy knows you’re here, and I think they’re trying to kill your brother and I…I can’t breathe and…I’m so scared…” She was beginning to hyperventilate, and Loki very gently shushed her, taking her face in his hands.

“Hush now, look at me. Breathe. No one is going to kill my brother, tell me what happened.” There was no time for her to explain, pointing frantically toward the door of Stark Tower as agents began spilling outside. Loki sucked in a sharp breath, realization washing over his features as he grabbed Lanie by her wrist and pulled her into the car with them, locking the doors.

“Shit!” He swore, wrestling the keys from Emily’s lifeless fingers and climbing into the front seat. It was then that Lanie realized her best friend was completely and totally unconscious. The hyperventilating worsened, a full-blown panic attack setting in as Lanie fought to not pass out.

“W-What the fuck did you do to her?”

“Not now, sweetheart, I’m a little busy.” Loki snapped harshly, shoving the keys into the ignition and revving the engine. Lanie let out a loud whimper.

“Do you even know how to drive?”

Loki’s eyes were wild, a half psychotic grin plastered on his face as he shifted the car into reverse and laid down hard on the gas pedal. “Not a bit, I’d put on that seatbelt if I were you.”                


	5. SHIELD and Sorrow

Back in the building, Thor was swinging his hammer at SHIELD agents left and right, a horrified expression marring his beautiful face. Tony hadn’t known how to react, pressing a button on his watch frantically. It mechanically transformed, wrapping around his hand as a repulsor beam was shot between the Asgardian God and Agent Coulson himself. This got everyone’s attention, startling them into silence as Tony shouted between gasps of air. “If one more vase in my suite is shattered by you jerks I’m suing Fury for every penny he’s worth.”

Thor pouted, heart pounding in his ears as he looked sadly on his friends. He couldn’t believe things had escalated this quickly, and he was upset that Lanie had abandoned him quicker than he could batt his blonde eyelashes. He took a sharp breath, not so much in fatigue as in irritation and gestured about wildly. “I cannot believe you _shot_ at me. Shoot at Loki if you will, but _I_ am an Avenger. The strongest Avenger.”

“You’re not--”

“ _The strongest_.” Thor insisted hotly, interrupting Tony as he shot a bitter look at Agent Coulson. “I am feeling _very_ personally attacked right now.”

Agent Coulson put his hand up, signaling for the other agents to stand down. He looked around at the grey walls uncomfortably, unable to look Thor in his wounded eyes. “Thor, it is our responsibility to apprehend Loki at all costs.”

Thor bellowed. “He _had_ been apprehended! By _me_! Do you not trust me?”

An awkward silence ensued, and Tony cleared his throat loudly. “Would everyone calm down? The more the two of you piss all over each other, the longer Reindeer Games is out on his own.”

The tension could be cut with a knife, and Agent Coulson looked tiredly at his watch. He seemed to think for a moment before looking apologetically at Thor. “I’m sorry, things got out of hand. But if your brother isn’t outside, I’m going to have to take you in to see the Director. We can’t have you protecting him, Thor. Avenger or not.”

Loki was speeding down the icy asphalt at ninety miles an hour, the car swerving in and out of the proper lane as he skidded across the snowy terrain. Emily’s eyes were fluttering, as if she were fading in and out of consciousness, and Lanie was rocking back and forth at her side. Loki glanced into the rear-view mirror, winking at the pathetic frail human as she continued to hyperventilate. He admired her long, gentle curls and the way the scarlet flush crawled up her cheeks at his gesture. She was so reactive, this one. He loved getting a rise out of women.

“Calm yourself, would you? I am going to get us out of here. Have a little faith.”

Lanie scoffed. “Faith in what, exactly? I had faith, Loki, before you literally fell into my life and destroyed everything I’ve ever believed in!”

Loki chuckled gently. “Now you’re being overdramatic.”

Lanie couldn’t have responded if she’d wanted to, clutching the back of the passenger seat for dear life as Loki swerved recklessly off the beaten path, forcing the car onto a rocky dirt road. It was then that Emily attempted to sit up, her body thrashing violently as the car hit every rock and dent imaginable.

“What the hell is going on? I think I’m about to be sick.” She complained, her complexion greening as Loki grinned happily at her from the driver's seat. He was having way too much fun with this.

“They were trailing us. So, I ditched them...I think. Do not fret, really, I could be doing much worse.” Loki’s words were optimistic, but his driving skills were rougher than even Lanie’s, and the woman couldn’t drive a car more than a few miles without losing a bumper. They hit a patch of black ice, hydroplaning into the dead and browning grass before Loki over-corrected in an attempt at regaining control of the car.

“Who? Who is?” Emily screamed as the car flipped over, gaining the attention of a highway patrolman who had turned his lights on and followed the trio down the back road. The sirens blared, and Loki groaned as he watched his now scratched and bleeding face heal slowly in the remains of the car window on the left side. He fought to turn his neck and check the backseat, a pit of dread settling into his stomach. He may have been an asshole, but he didn’t really want either girl to be dead.

“Lanie? Emmie?” He drawled half-interestedly, peering over his shoulder as best he could. They were upside down, and Loki was thankful that Lanie had heeded his warning, having buckled both herself and her friend up with the strange grey fabric she’d informed him of prior. Emily was alert now, eyes wide with terror, but Lanie was the one who had sustained injuries this time. His eyes softened as he looked on her face, which was cracked and bruised in several places. He glanced at her friend.

“Is she breathing?”

Emily needed a moment, steadying her thoughts and choking back tears as she leaned over to very gently feel under Lanie’s nose. She let out a relieved sob when she felt the hot of her breath on her hand. “Yeah, no thanks to you.”

It was then that the highway patrolman raced from his vehicle, calling for paramedics as he approached the mangled wreckage. Loki had to think on his feet, panic rolling through him as his mind raced full of possibilities. Showing himself to the police was too dangerous, even if everyone was supposed to have forgotten who he was or what he did. Not one for taking unnecessary risks, by the time the trooper reached the scraps of blue Wrangler, Loki had completely changed form.

“Please, somebody help me!” Cried the tiny blonde girl now strapped into Loki’s seat. He put on a show, chest convulsing hard with hysterical cries as the deputy tried his hardest to sooth her. Loki thanked his lucky stars that the boost Emily had given him had worked.

“Hush now, honey, take deep breaths. Are you hurt? Have you been drinking?” Loki shook his head wildly, whimpering loudly and scratching his long pink nails pathetically at all the broken glass.

“I-I’m just scared, m-my sisters are in the backseat, Lanie isn’t waking up.”

The officer took a shaky breath and took a step back from the car, pulling his walkie-talkie from his back pocket and messing frantically with several knobs. “I’ve got a new driver, no more than sixteen years old, female, injured off the side of highway sixteen. Her elder sister are with her, one sister is unresponsive.” He was about to re-approach the car when several black SUV’s pulled up, sporting the SHIELD insignia on the side. The state trooper frowned, less than thrilled to be running into these assholes again. They always somehow overrode his jurisdiction.

Phil led the pack as agents spilled out of the cars and into the snow, flashing his badge briskly upon approach. “We are with the Strategic Homeland Intervention--” The policeman held up his hand in annoyance, cutting off the well-dressed stranger and shaking his head.

“Whatever. Do what you need to. Am I dismissed?” He barked, earning a nod from the men in black surrounding him. Loki sucked in a sharp breath, attempting to sooth his own nerves as Phil approached the car slowly. This plan had...not worked as well as he had originally hoped. Phil peaked into the car, shining his flashlight inside the darkened interior. His brow furrowed.

“Where is Loki? Who are you?”

It was Emily who weakly chimed in from the backseat. “That is my sister, Linda. Who the hell are you? Can you help us?”

Phil chewed the inside of his lip for a moment, glancing back and forth from the small teenage girl to the redhead in the backseat. He’d seen Lanie in the tower, but these two...one of them was surely Loki. He wasn’t stupid. He grimaced deeply. Pressing in his earpiece, he radioed in to the nearest SHIELD base and readied the order. “Have Thor brought to the Director immediately. We are bringing in victims for both treatment and questioning.”

When Thor walked in to Fury’s office, he felt as if he’d stepped into a crypt. The walls were stark white and blank, and the sterile tile floor stared back at him unhappily. The Director was sitting at a cold, unfeeling metal desk in silence, his eye fixated on his folded hands before him. He said nothing as the god took a seat before him. Thor glanced about uncomfortably, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind his ear before clearing his throat and putting on his most dashing smile.

“So, Fury. You look...well, furious. It suits you.” Fury’s eye very slowly shifted from his hands to Thor, his entire demeanor chilling the Asgardian’s blood on impact. He swallowed hard and forced a lighthearted chuckle. “Poor taste, I beg your pardon.”

Fury sighed heavily, rising to his feet and pacing around Thor’s chair. It made his hair stand on end. The more silence that fell between them, the more Thor was convinced that Loki had been caught. It terrified him. It was one thing for Thor himself to take Loki back to Asgard, but SHIELD had made themselves clear after New York. If the Asgardian’s didn’t punish Loki properly, they would. Thor’s happy-go-lucky smile faltered. No one was touching his little brother but him.

When Fury finally spoke, his countenance was stern and unimpressed. “Loki has been on our radar for several hours. Earth has not encountered seismic readings like today since--” Thor opened his mouth to interrupt, but one look from Fury shut him up quickly. “Let me finish. Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Loki has breached our atmosphere like that before, remember? And look at what happened. He should have been brought straight to us, Thor, and as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes I expect you to know that. So, tell me why it is that we are at least five hours into his little visit and I am just now seeing the likes of you.”

His words left a bitter taste in Thor’s mouth and his lips formed into a thin, hard line. “Know this, Director. I may be an Avenger, but first and foremost I am Loki’s brother, and I have a duty to my family. So, you must forgive me if I prefer to drag my brother home kicking and screaming than leave him to rot here for you to do All-Father only knows what to.”

Fury leaned in dreadfully close to Thor’s face, eyepatch almost brushing the taller man’s cheek as he pushed the bounds of personal space. “If you want to waste your time looking for a mindless criminal, be my guest. But you will not use SHIELD resources, unless you want to report to me. Am I understood? Now get your ass out of my hair and your slimy rat of a brother off my planet.”

Thor stood quickly, ready to be rid of this mockery. He shot the director a Loki-esque half-cocked smile as he headed toward the door, attempting to think of a clever note to end on. “You don’t have any hair.” He shouted as the elevator doors slid closed, grumbling to himself that it had sounded better in his head. He rode the lift down to the bases bottom floor, and Coulson was waiting on him as he stepped into the lobby.

“You are going to want to come to the infirmary. We may or may not have your brother in custody.”

Thor rose a thick blonde eyebrow. “Well which is it?”

Coulson didn’t respond, so Thor begrudgingly followed the agent down the winding, immaculate corridors. It was getting dark out, and the shadows cast upon the vast empty space created an air of uncertainty. Thor grew anxious as he followed behind Phil, reminded of the night he had attempted to reclaim his hammer from one such base. Happy, pleasant memories were never the sort made in a SHIELD facility. SHIELD was where happiness went to die. Thor clutched Mjolnir to his side at the thought, a worried crease dimpling the tan skin at the centre of his forehead. He feared for his brother. He and Loki had a lot of growing yet to do, and he wanted to get back to a place where he could trust him again so badly. It had not been long at all since he mourned him, and thinking him to be dead had nearly destroyed him. He knew Loki wasn’t to be left to his own devices, knew that he was untrustworthy and mad, and foolish. But Thor was not leaving him in the ‘care’ of these people. Over his dead body, if that be necessary. These thoughts had him wondering why he worked for these people if he mistrusted them so, but he could not contemplate it for much longer. They were nearing a stretch of hospital beds, and he recognized two of the three bodies at an instant.

“What happened in my absence?”

Agent Coulson shrugged. “We found them like this, car flipped over on the side of the road. Any idea which of them could be your brother?”

Though the answer was obvious to Thor, he played his best disconcerted gaze. His cerulean eyes filled with panic, and he shook his head at Phil. “Honestly, none of them. You saw Lanie in Stark Tower as plain as I did, and I left Loki in the care of the other two, in the vehicle. Are you sure there wasn’t a fourth person in the car?” He lied frantically, the color draining from Phil’s face as the new reality set in.

“Shit, you’re serious, aren’t you?”

Thor grabbed Phil by the shoulders roughly. “Please, listen to me. Loki _must_ be found. I want him home.”

Before Phil could respond, ‘Linda’ sat up in her bed. She turned frightened green eyes to the Avenger. “Mister? Is my family going to be alright? You said he wouldn’t hurt us...you said…”

Emily, who had been sitting up in bed this entire time, turned a furious gaze toward Linda. She was having a grim time concealing how upset she was, staring down at her wounded hand angrily. There was so much blood caked to her palm, and the fact that not all of it was hers made her nauseas. If she could have choked Loki without blowing everyone's cover, he’d have been dead already. She huffed. “Well, Linda, that is what happens when you are stupid enough to trust some greasy anorexic shit-bag just because a handsome Avenger asks you to. I told you not to let him drive the car, and now look at Lanie! She could die!” She spat, pointing a slender finger at her unconscious best friend.

Linda sneered. “The only one who finds that oaf attractive is _you_. You are the one who told our sister that we should do what he said, not me! You turn three shades every time he looks at you, you aren’t fooling anyone.”

Thor looked a little surprised, eyes lingering on Emily in a way that made her uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure if Loki’s words held any merit or value, but he smiled as he drank her in. Even if she didn’t find him beautiful, he found _her_ to be beautiful. His smile was disarming, and a bright red blush heated Emily’s cheeks. Linda crossed her arms over her chest.

“See?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Can someone just please look me over, I could have weird Asgardian AIDS in my bloodstream right now, he _bled_ in me.”

“I beg your pardon?” Linda said defensively, catching herself as she quickly added “he wasn’t as bad as you are making him out to be, if you keep acting like you hate him too much they’re going to suspect him to be you.”

“Yeah well, maybe you’re the one with the crush, Linda.”

“Ladies, please. Do not quarrel. Coulson, please run tests on these women and get them home, I have caused them enough trouble. We need to be focused on Loki. Precious time is wasting.” Thor sighed, earning a nod of the head from his companion.

“Finally, something we agree on. Ms. Fenton is still unconscious, but her injuries are not severe. We will run a blood test on her sister and send them on their way.”

About an hour passed before Emily found herself crammed into the back of Agent Coulson’s car, Linda at her side, and Lanie laying passed out across their legs. She grimaced to herself, noticing the way Linda absentmindedly stoked Lanie’s hair. She had no right to touch her like that. She was the reason she was like this. Emily’s arms hurt, having had blood drawn from both arms and the backs of her hands. She was black and blue, and the cut on her palm throbbed and pulsed. This had easily been the worst day of her life. She pulled out her phone, dialing her father’s number to let him know she was alright.

“Where the fuck are you? You can’t just leave the restaurant mid-shift like that, I fucking taught you better than that.” A heavy British accent barked back at her, Linda looking over in bewilderment as she felt Emily flinch.

“I know that dad, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have left if it hadn’t been an emergency.”

While Emily argued with her father, Coulson pulled the SUV into the driveway of Lanie and Emily’s apartment. The building was old, white flakes of chipped paint seeming to melt off into wet snow. It was small, but it was home. Coulson thought for a moment, watching the girls in the backseat from his rear-view mirror. They seemed as normal as any struggling middle-class family, and he hated that they had been put in the middle of all this nonsense. It wasn’t fair.

“Listen, I want you to know something. I am not under any circumstances supposed to leak confidential information, and I am not going to. However, if someone...like say, Thor, wanted to find out what SHIELD was hiding, they might find it useful to rummage around Stark’s old databases in the tower basement. And if three frightened young women happened to pass that knowledge along to him, to get him out of their hair, certain agents might decide to look the other way.”

Emily hung up on her father immediately. She stared at Phil hard, disbelief etched into her features. “What?”

Coulson just smiled and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “Just a thought.”                


	6. Powers and Propositions

Lanie kept dreaming about that night. The way Loki had carried her inside the apartment when Coulson had left, the way he’d whispered an apology in her ear as if it were a sacred promise. Emily kept telling her she was romanticizing her trauma as a coping skill, which very well may have been true, but it didn’t make Lanie any less satisfied. It didn’t help that Loki had all but vanished after that, and had left her with confusing memories that she questioned on the daily. If Emily hadn’t shared them, Lanie would have sworn her brain had made the entire fiasco up. He had left an impression on her, that was for sure, she couldn’t get the God out of her mind.

Thor had dropped by the house after leaving SHIELD, in search of his brother. When he realized he was gone, he ran off after him, but not before Emily passed along Coulson’s tidbit of information. She sincerely hoped it helped him, with whatever it was he needed, but she was truthfully so glad that when he and his brother were out of her life for good. Not that she hadn’t been attracted to Thor, oh no, he was the most beautiful man she had ever had the pleasure of knowing. But one thing Emily could not handle was drama, and she was not willing to spend another second with that crazy duo than was necessary. Even still, she could not keep him from her thoughts at night; his accent, his hair, his face, those sweet eyes...but then, her dreams would be shattered as she was seized cruelly from her sleep repeatedly.

Lanie was laying on her stomach, face buried into her pillow as she thought of those piercing blue eyes, and ice-cold hands against the warm of her flesh. She had been sleeping so soundly, drifting deeper and deeper until suddenly--it happened again. It happened like it did every night, like clock-work. Lanie’s body shot straight up as she heard Emily scream, and she knew instantly what was happening. She ran down the hall to her best friend’s bedroom, forcing the door opened with a hard jerk.

“Are you okay? Which was it this time? Ice or energy?”

Emily whimpered as she looked at the dark circles under Lanie’s eyes, the guilt eating her alive. It had been a rough couple of weeks for them both, and it was killing her that she was keeping her friend awake. She brought her hands to her face in shame. “Do you even have to ask?”

Lanie glanced around, assessing the damage. The fish bowl that sat on the nightstand was cracked in several places, and the water was frozen solid. Emily’s fingertips were frostbitten, and Lanie sat down on the edge of the bed to gently warm her friend’s hands in her own. “Poor Beckham. I had such hopes that we wouldn’t murder this one.” She said sadly, looking on the little beta popsicle that was frozen in place near his fishy castle.

“I can’t keep living like this. I need to know what that bastard did to me.”

Lanie nodded, running her fingers soothingly through Emily’s hair. “I know, honey. Let me go to Mr. Stark about it, it wouldn’t be that big a deal, I bring him coffee every morning. The man has a Starbucks addiction that rivals my grandmother.”

Emily shook her head hard. “No, no! You can’t tell him, if I ignore it long enough it will go away.”

Lanie sighed hard, rubbing her hands together on Emily’s in an attempt at easing her symptoms before actual frostbite set in and did any permanent damage. “Em. It’s been three weeks. I don’t know how to help you and you don’t have control over it. You’re starting to frighten me.”

Emily slumped over against her shoulder, laying her head on her arm and taking several deep breaths. She needed to collect her thoughts, concentrating on her breathing and attempting to find her happy place. Too bad her happy place took her straight to a bright pair of blue eyes and a boyish smile. She whined. “I hate Thor.”

Lanie laughed, checking her watch and letting out a long groan. It was pushing six in the morning, and that meant she needed to be getting in the shower. “Okie dokie, I need to be getting ready, and so do you. I must be at Stark Tower at 8:30 and it’s an hour commute into the city. And you, missy, are not missing another day of school. I know you’re scared, but you’re gonna get dropped if you keep ditching. It’ll be fine, I’m gonna talk to Tony about it whether you like it or not.”

Emily glared at her, but she knew she was right, so she relented. “Well, I don’t have to be ready for another hour or so, so I’m going back to sleep.” 

Lanie nodded, kissing her friend’s temple and standing to head to the bathroom. “You good? Do you need me to do anything?”

Emily waved her off dismissively. “Nah, I’m okay. Be careful going to work, I know the snow is finally melting but it’s wet and dark out there.” 

Lanie smiled at her brightly before turning off her bedroom light. “Will do.”

Meanwhile, Loki was busy being up to no good at all. He had been spending the last three weeks breaking into Stark Tower every night, when there were less agents around and Tony was off on his drinking binges. He had taken Phil’s advice to heart, scouring the databases for any sign at all that SHIELD had been behind the city’s memory loss, but he had no luck at all. He was becoming frustrated, and the more time he wasted stuck on this issue, the more dangerous it became for him to stay in Midgard while still on SHIELD’s radar. It wasn’t helping that he was distracted, his thoughts often drifting to...her. He hated thinking about the curls, the doe eyes...the tender way she’d cared for him in her own bed. She needn’t have, but she had refused to leave him to freeze out in the cold and snow...something that even his birth father had been guilty of. These were useless, pathetic things for him to dwell on, and he knew that. But something kept taking him back to that night, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

It was then that Loki had an idea. For the first time in three weeks, he didn’t mind that damned Lanie flooding his mind. He could have use for her, yet. Perhaps that was the reason, or at least, that’s what Loki had chosen to tell himself. 

Lanie was speeding, per usual, her beat-up silver Volkswagen treading along the icy Brooklyn highway. She hadn’t lied to Emily when she had said the commute to Midtown was roughly an hour, and she was always, always running late. She reached over to change her CD, distracted by the loud base of her Lady Gaga CD, when caught the glimpse of something shadowy in her peripheral vision. She nearly jumped straight out of her skin, car veering of the road a bit as she fought to stay in her lane. “Shit!”

“Miss me?”

Lanie very slowly turned her head, her frightened gaze turning to see none other than Loki Laufeyson sitting in her passenger seat. He wiggled his eyebrows at her and her face turned three thousand different shades at once.

“Loki what the hell!!! How...why???” She shouted, attempting to swat at him, though it went straight through. He laughed.

“Not really here darling. I’m good, but I’m not that good.” His grin was wide, eyes alight with a happy mischievous gleam. He was so pleased with himself, she could tell, and she wasn’t sure if she was more angry or turned on. Probably both.

“U-Um, are you alright? I’m surprised Thor hasn’t caught you yet, what are you still doing here?”

Loki put his hand across his heart in mock appreciation, though his bright smile never left. “Aw, look at you. So worried about me. I bet you’ve even dreamed about me.”

She looked down at the floorboard with a dark blush. Oh yeah, definitely more turned on. With that, he had his answer, and he couldn’t help the happiness that swelled inside of him. She had been thinking about him too. He tried to think of the best way to put this, watching as she re-steadied her car and continued along her route to work.

“So. Alaine. Funny you should mention my brother, I have a bit of a proposition for you.”

She blushed at the use of her full name, which he no doubt had read off her work badge. She gnawed her lip for a moment, curious as to what she could possibly help a God with. She had fully expected to never see him again. “And what would that be?”

Loki pursed his lips, thinking of the best way to phrase it. There was more than one reason she had been on his mind, he was intrigued by a great deal of things. Mostly she was insignificant to him, and should be, he’d known her one day before he made like a banana and split. But there was an ache inside of her, she wanted to help people, she wanted to feel needed, and right now he could use that to his advantage. His playful smile faltered, and her brow creased with worry.

“Loki?”

He sighed. “I need to use your clearance one more time, if you’ve a mind for it. I believe I am close to figuring out SHIELD’s dirty little secret, but I never have enough time during the night to sift through all the nonsense he’s got piled away down in that cellar.”

“I was afraid that was what you were after. Loki, do you really think that is a good idea? We were lucky to get out with our lives afterward.” She chided, eyes peeled to the road in an attempt at keeping herself from falling for it. One look into those burning sapphire eyes and it would be over. He’d win.

“Don’t make me change your mind for you. I can do that you know.” He teased, though she could tell the threat was empty, and she chuckled.

“If you really wanted to do that, you wouldn’t have brought it up.” She hummed to herself before adding, “Why do you care so much, anyway? _I_ mean I have a reason to care. _Emily_ has a reason to care. God only knows what was wiped from our minds. But you? You have no reason to be upset; you should be overjoyed. You literally got away with murder.”

Loki got quiet, and Lanie immediately regretted poking at him. His eyes glazed over, suddenly feeling like he was a million miles away. He was distant, guarded. She had hit some sort of nerve.

“I’m sorry.” She said quietly. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “I don’t expect you to understand. If you had all your memories, you’d be doing your best to keep your distance from me right now. I care because if you do not fear me then you do not know your place. You have no idea how hard I worked to get this realm to kneel...and when I finally accomplished it, my brother told me my slights were mere imaginings and ruined everything I worked for. If I am to rule, I must first fix this mess.  I’m short one Tesseract. I do not exactly possess the power I did the first time, and I will not have that arduous work squandered.”

Hurt tore at her expression slightly, mulling over his words. He’d been so playful before; why did his mood have to shift so fluidly? It confused her. “I need to...know my place.” She repeated slowly, his eyes softening as he realized how she’d taken it.

“I didn’t...not you specifically. The realm, in general.”

Lanie could tell he meant well, and didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so she forced a smile in his direction. She just wished she knew why she felt inclined to help him, to be near him. He obviously, at least as far as she could tell, wanted nothing to do with her. “If I help you, you have to give me something in return.” She proposed, easing her car into a parking spot at Stark Tower and jerking her key from the ignition.

He rose a perfectly arched eyebrow in amusement. “Oh? My presence is not enough?”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Not nearly. Emily needs your help...whatever you did to her had some adverse side effects. She is...freezing things.”

Loki’s face twisted with confusion. “She’s...what?”

“I have no time to properly explain, I’m going to be late. Just meet me back at my house at around 5:30 can you do that?” Loki nodded slowly, watching as Lanie fought with herself. She knew she was technically aiding a murderer do something terribly illegal, and she knew that if the church knew for one moment that she hadn’t put an end to this a long time ago she’d be excommunicated, but there was something in those eyes. She reached out to very gently brush a strand of Loki’s hair from his face, but her hand just slid through him. She shot him a bittersweet smile. “Come on out, Loki. And don’t make me regret this.”

It was then that Loki’s grin lit up, coiling around his cheeks like a Cheshire Cat. Oh, she was going to love this one. If they were going to do this, they were doing it his way, on his terms. He wanted to test the waters, to see if this girl was as intriguing as he remembered her to be. He wasn’t doing this alone. He shifted his voice to mirror her own exactly, savoring the horror on her face as he spoke.

“I’m sorry Mr. Stark, I’ve been feeling ill this morning. Is it at all possible that someone else could take my shift?”

Lanie narrowed her mahogany brown eyes at him. “Excuse me?”

Loki’s laugh was joyous, not seeming to care that she could have choked the life out of him had he truly been sitting in her passenger seat. His voice returned to normal, ringing out mischievously as he lounged back in her old leather seat. “You, my dear, have the day off.”    


	7. The Pet Sematary

Emily had called out of school. Lanie was going to kill her, but she didn’t care, she couldn’t deal with creepy Mr. Eckard today, who looked at her like she was a piece of meat. Her fish was dead, her hands were cold, and she had literally just cried her eyes out to Stephen King’s _Pet Sematary_. Who does that? Apparently, women who murder their fish babies with freaky God AIDS, that’s who. She turned off the TV with a click, not in the mood to watch even her favorite scary movie, _Friday the 13 th_, which was coming on next.

Her heart was broken, watching the ice melt slowly into an algae-coloured slush. It was time to bury poor Beckham. He was a beta ice cube now, bobbing up and down in his ice-ridden wasteland. Emily puffed her lips out in a pout, devastated as she used the vibrant green net to scoop Beckham up into her hands and carry him to the bathroom. “I had really hoped you wouldn’t end up like Beckham 1-4, but it seems I don’t have the best luck with fish. I’m so sorry.” She whined, flinching as his lifeless corpse fell into the toilet with an uninspired plop. She reached to flush, wiping a tear from her eye, when there was a thunderous knock on the back door. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

“Hello? Maiden, I would have words with you.” A thick, Australian accent beckoned to her loudly. She knew who it was at an instant, and it both frightened and excited her. She hadn’t thought in her wildest dreams she would ever see him again, and she nearly ran to the door.

“Thor? What are you doing here?” She asked, glancing through the peephole before opening the door. She was thankful it was neither Loki nor her creepy elderly neighbor, who somehow managed to be worse than Mr. Eckard. There was a faint scratching at the door as she wrestled with the deadbolt, her curiosity piquing when she finally forced the ancient, swollen wood door open.

Thor had been trailed the entire way to Emily and Lanie’s apartment. He had woven in and out of Brooklyn’s complicated roads and alleys, attempting to lose his newfound companion, who had been hot on his heels since the moment he left Stark Tower an hour prior. He had had to walk, no longer allowed to use SHIELD equipment after his little spat with Director Fury. Not that it had mattered to him, humans didn’t seem to quite grasp the whole superhuman durability thing. The only drawback, was that now there had been this mangey animal pulling and biting at his cape the entire way. His eyes were full of apology when the door swung open, prepared to apologize for the pest.

“I needed to see you. I’m so--” Thor’s words sputtered off as the fluffy cream and rust coloured shih tzu mix pounced at Emily’s legs, curly tail beating the air as quickly and happily as was physically possible. Thor noticed the way Emily’s bloodshot and misty eyes lit up at the sight of the puppy, and she looked like she was very much in need of some TLC. Thor smirked, picking up the tiny dog in his big hands and presenting him before her. “So I...got you a dog.”

“Uh...you what?”

Thor didn’t bother to explain himself, which didn’t much surprise Emily; he never did. Instead, he backed her passed the threshold of the room and walked inside, shutting the door behind them. The dog lapped at Emily’s cheeks lovingly and she laughed, though she never took her bewildered gaze off the God.

“You needed to see me...so...you got me a dog?”

“Okay, more like the dog found me, and I gave him to you. But never you mind that, I’ve come to see your friend.”

Emily’s smile fell slightly, not fully understanding the jealousy that bubbled in her chest. “Oh...you’re here for Lanie?”

Thor could tell that he’d misspoken somehow, and he tried his best to recover. “Allow me to rephrase. I need to see Lanie, but I want to see you.”

Emily put her hands on her hips, a sarcastic laugh ripping through her. “Oh, is that so?”

Thor reached out to gently take her by the hand, pulling her closer to him as he placed a gentle kiss upon her knuckles. “Believe me or not, but it’s true.”

Emily’s breath hitched in her throat, face a dark burgundy as she tore her gaze from those beautiful baby blue eyes. Her heart was skipping beats in her chest, and he could clearly see the effect he had on her. His smile broadened. She was gorgeous when she blushed.

“Thor…” His hands snaked around her waist, and she contemplated pushing him away, but she didn’t want to. She never wanted him to let go.

“I think about you a lot.” He admitted softly. His brow furrowed, attempting to decipher what she was thinking. “Is...is that okay? Is that what you want?”

She didn’t know how to respond, heart beating in her ears rapidly as the feeling of him pressed against her scorched her very blood. This was every dream she’d ever had come true...and she didn’t know how to handle it. “I...do you make me dream of you to?” She had answered a question with a question, but that was okay, Thor laughed jovially.

“Darling I am a God, not a miracle worker. Contrary to popular belief the terms are not synonymous.” He looked down, long lashes brushing his cheekbones as he tried to conceal how happy the confession made him. He was glad the attraction seemed to be mutual. “So, you dream of me too.” It wasn’t a question, it was a declaration, and it made her terribly uncomfortable. She tore her hands away from his own, flustered, and picked up the needy little puppy begging for her attention.

“So, uh...yeah. Where did you find the dog, again? T-Tell me about the dog.”

Meanwhile, Lanie was so nervous she was frightened she might vomit. Loki had assured her that he was powerful enough to keep them both concealed as they snuck through the Tower in broad daylight, but she still wasn’t entirely convinced that she wasn’t about to lose her job. They had been sifting through shit in the basement for hours, and while usually Loki would have been growing frustrated at the lack of progress, having someone there to pass the time with was honestly helping. It made Loki wish he wasn’t always on his own in all his schemes and his plans...though he supposed it had to be this way, didn’t it? He had to be alone in this, the things he did...no one would want to help a monster. Least of all the angel sitting in his presence. He had been watching her for a long while, listening to her babble to freely to him as she worked, as if she weren’t afraid of him. She almost made him feel normal. It made him wonder if that meant she was just as messed up as he was, and he cocked his head to the side curiously.

“Alaine? May I ask you something?” He asked quietly, sitting in the floor as she attempted to crack open one of Stark’s old locked chests as quietly as possible. She turned to glance back at him, raising her eyebrow as she did so. He was never one to usually ask for permission.

“Of course.”

“What is it?”

Lanie tore several books off one of the leaning and dust-covered bookshelves to pilfer through and plopped down beside Loki, staring at him for a long moment. “What is what? Quit being weird.” She replied with a laugh.

He looked anxious, dark blue eyes fixated on his hands as he worked. He refused to meet her gaze, and it frightened her. Loki was never like this with her, his demeanour was normally alight with mischief and playfulness. Right now, he looked...unwound. “What is it inside of you that is so twisted, it reaches to mingle with my own darkness? I know you oft think of me, in spite having known me briefly; in spite of knowing what my brother has put in your head, that I am a killer, a monster. And I have not denied these things to you, I know what I am perhaps more than he does. Yet here you sit. I did not have to twist your arm hard, I did not have to cloud your thoughts. Your thoughts are clouded all on their own, aren’t they? Tell me why.”

That was a lot to handle all at once, and it look Lanie a moment to process what he was implying. She had to reflect inward a moment, he had asked a question that had been on her mind since the first dream she’d had of him. What was her fascination with him? Why was he so striking and inviting to her? She frowned deeply and shrugged her shoulders. “I cannot pretend not to know sadness when I see it in others, Loki. I want to be afraid of you, I want to hate you for the things you’ve done. But when I look into your eyes, all I see is pain. You are beautiful, and you are hurting, and I want to know more about you.”

“Ah, but that doesn’t answer my question. What do you know of pain? It is often the most tortured who so easily look inside other people. I want to know what it is.” His voice was soft, though his eyes had shimmered brightly at her compliment.

She sighed. “Why can I not just like you, Loki? What is it exactly that you see in me that resides within yourself?”

Loki chuckled, his mouth smirking at her softly, though he was trying hard to remain serious. “All you did was rephrase my question, Fair One. I asked you first.”

She chewed on her lip hard. He was right. She folded her arms across her chest and shook her head at him. She couldn’t understand what had gotten into him today, but she figured if she didn’t relent he’d get angry, and he was in too good a mood for her to risk that. “Everyone has skeletons in their closet, Loki. Everyone. Mine are just...maybe a little more intense than others. I’m not sure what kind of information it is that you are looking for, but most of my issues stem from one person. My mother moved in and out of my life quicker than the ocean changes tides. Some days she was the perfect mother, you know? And then other times she was high, drunk, forcing herself onto her husband’s friends, you name it. She was abusive, emotionally, you know, which is a lot for a child to handle as it is, but then she went and got herself arrested. Multiple times. Then I had to live with the guilt I felt every day that my life was happier when she wasn’t around. And then one day, when I was seventeen, she was gone. For good that time. Killed herself. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Her rant had caught the God off guard, and he dropped what he was doing immediately. She was shaking, brown eyes glazed over with unshed tears, and he felt bad that he had pressed her as hard as he had. He wrapped an arm awkwardly around her shoulders, pulling her against him. He didn’t say anything; he knew there was nothing he could say that would make it better. She could see the hesitance in his eyes, like he was contemplating whether he should reciprocate. He cleared his throat.

“Hmm. I was abandoned. My father left me to die after birth, because I was three times the size of a normal Frost Giant, I was too small, too weak...too sick. I was not the prince the great and powerful Laufey had expected when he’d bedded my mother, no doubt.” The venom in his words when he spat out ‘Laufey’ made Lanie flinch, and his grip on her tightened. “There was a war, between Asgard and Jotunheim, and that is how Odin found me. He thought he could bridge peace between the two realms if he raised Laufey’s son as his own, though he seemed to lose sight of that goal as I grew. I was raised to hate my own race, to think they were the vile and wretched villains that Odin made them out to be...and he--I don’t think he ever intended to tell me of my true parentage. He wanted to keep me as Thor’s second, the weak little brother there to attest to his greatness.”

Lanie loved mythology, she knew what a Frost Giant was. She looked up at him, tears spilling over as she reached for his hand. Loki stood completely still, body rigid with fear. He’d allowed himself to go to a vulnerable place, and Lanie knew he was waiting for her judgement to slice him in two. She squeezed his hand in comfort. “I’m so sorry. No one deserves that, you must feel so alone. I know I did, I felt alone. But I learned that you don’t have to feel that way. You’re not alone Loki, I’m...I’m here.”

Loki was looking down at her, his own eyes shining as he very gently ebbed the tears off her cheek. She closed the distance, lips colliding with his own as naturally as if she’d known him all her life. “I’m sorry.” She breathed, about to move from him when he shook his head.

“Don’t be.” He pulled them back together, tongue eagerly colliding with her own. He moaned, pressing her back hard against the bookshelf. His fingers threaded through her curls, lips searing her own as they fought to resist each other. “You’re not alone either.”

Lanie’s face was flushed, lips bruised and heart racing as she pulled away, unable to believe what had just happened. She glued her eyes to the books in her hands, sputtering as she tried and failed to say something back to him. He was laughing at her, a relieved and even happy expression written across his features as he watched her. She pulled a piece of large blue paper from one of the books, eyes widening as she turned to look at him.

“Loki, I think this is--” He shot to his feet in excitement, pulling him up with her and kissing her temple.

“Oh, you’re excellent.”                                                                 


	8. The Machine

“Loki these are blueprints.” Lanie gushed in excitement, eyes pouring over the complicated schematics. She had been taught in the arts, her mind was not very math and science oriented, but she knew that if anyone could make sense of these prints, it would be Tony. Her eyes lingered on Loki for a while, contemplating what must have been going through his head. His eyes were lost in the vastness of the work before him and he shook his head slowly.

“I know what you’re thinking...but Lanie, you must trust me. I don’t think we should give these to Stark.”

Lanie’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean? Loki, if we give them to Tony he could help us come up with reverse schematics. Isn’t that what you want? To reverse the effects of whatever SHIELD has done to us?”

Loki sat the blueprints down for a moment and took her by her wrists, pulling her closer to him slowly. His gaze was intense, and Lanie couldn’t tell if she was scared or turned on. His grip on her was forceful, but his eyes were brimming with mixed emotions. He made her feel confused. “Listen to me. I know you believe that he is on our side, but you don’t know the first thing about SHIELD. They are everywhere, and the Avenger’s trust them implicitly. Trusting anyone, including my brother is a mistake.”

“And yet you expect me to trust you?” She shot back, searching his expression for any semblance of hope that he was as trustworthy as he pretended to be. She watched as his eyes as they lingered on her lips for a moment too long, creeping back up to meet her gaze as a wide smirk consumed his every feature. He leaned in, warm breath tickling her face.

“Oh, it would be stupid to trust me, darling. But you like me, you cannot deny me that...and I like you. We have more in common than most. If we have hope of understanding one another, then working together should be as easy as…” He trailed off, voice deep and throaty as he spoke. He was seducing her, and she knew it, but in that moment, she was too far gone to care. She had seen something inside of him when he’d let his guard down, she’d seen fear and sadness and compassion, and that was worth everything to her. Loki was more than he let on, and if he wasn’t careful, she was going to fall in love with him.

He took her lips with his own roughly, his own mind running faster than lightning. She tasted so sweet, she was intoxicating to him. Lanie was the one factor he hadn’t foreseen coming in his plans to divide and conquer, but she was a happy accident. His happy accident. Her willingness to open up to him and listen to him having had full awareness of who he was and what he’d done was refreshing. Her kindness despite her own suffering caught him off guard. It wasn’t so much that she was a mystery to him, he was sufficiently sure that he was the mystery. But she was such a breath of fresh air that she kept him on his toes, and he liked that. They were just playing with one another, right? What was the harm…

Their tongues tangled roughly for a few moments, the air in the room seemingly dissipating as they gasped for breath, drinking more and more of each other in, until a shrill voice forced them out of their rapture and back to reality.

“What the hell is going on in here?”

Back in Brooklyn, however, Thor had finished rambling about his finding of the dog, whom Emily had affectionately named Milo. They were sitting on the long mahogany couch together, in a bit of an awkward silence, as Emily very carefully petted Milo’s multi-coloured fur. Thor was watching her, contemplating what in the world could be going on. She wasn’t acting like herself.

“So, I was here to speak to Lanie about Loki, but that can wait. Tell me what it is that has you so scared?”

Emily scoffed, stiff and frozen fingers halting dead in their tracks, tangled in Milo’s long, shaggy hair. She didn’t want to admit to being scared, not in front of him, and she hated appearing like she couldn’t handle what was going on her life. He was looking at her so gently from underneath his long blonde eyelashes, and she had to turn her face away. “I’m not…”

Thor reached around and very delicately cupped her chin, turning her face toward him once more. “Emily? Look at me. Please tell me what is troubling you.”

Emily opened her mouth, but shut it again, as she realized she had no idea what to even say. Your brother broke me? I’m a monster now? I can’t control my own emotions? There was nothing she could say. Her large grey eyes filled with tears, and Thor wrapped his muscular arms around her without another word. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, Milo wriggling out of her lap as she nestled into Thor’s embrace. His touch was so gentle that it wounded her, and she couldn’t stop herself from letting it all out. His kindness knew no bounds. “Y-You shouldn’t be near me. When I get like this I...I could hurt you.”

Thor laughed gingerly, resting his chin atop mounds of burgundy hair. She was too beautiful to cry, and he needed her to know that. His fingers trailed down her back, rubbing small circles against her maroon cardigan in an attempt at soothing her. “Dare you threaten the God of Thunder?” He teased, his smile only cutting her deeper as she moved to put a safe amount of distance between them.

“Thor, I’m not kidding. Something is wrong with me, ever since Loki...did what he did...I haven’t been the same.”

Thor’s expression fell instantly at the mention of his brother. He wasn’t sure what she was referring to, but whatever Loki had done, Thor had failed to protect her, and guilt crept up on him quicker than he’d ever anticipated. This wasn’t right, it wasn’t how things were supposed to be. He shouldn’t have to worry about protecting people he cares about from his only sibling. He grimaced deeply. “What has he done? Do you know where he is?”

Emily shook her head, standing up and taking Thor by the hand. She pulled him off the couch and to his feet, leading him toward her bedroom. She knew if she tried to explain she was just going to continue to cry, and she didn’t want him to see her in hysterics. She was going to show him what was wrong, and then she was going to demand that his brother fix it. Loki didn’t get to bleed all over her and then disappear, leaving her with all his problems while he was off frolicking and doing god only knows what. If she didn’t hate him before, she sure as hell hated him now.

“Look!” She cried, pointing to the half-melted fish freeze on display beside her bedside. Thor tilted his head to the side, eyeing the mess for a second before shifting his eyes toward the distraught girl standing next to him. He rose a platinum eyebrow, not entirely sure what he was looking at, or how it held any relevance to their current situation.

“You...like fish?”

Emily sighed heavily. “I love fish. I loved my fish, Thor. And I woke up in the middle of the night from a night terror, this being the result. I killed him. With magic I couldn’t possibly begin to understand.”

Thor shook his head wildly, trying very hard to make sense of what had just come out of her mouth. There was no way Loki could have passed down such a magical talent to her, that didn’t make sense. Emily and Loki had hardly spent any time together. “Is there any possibility that you’re...well, a little less than human? My brother thought himself to be of Asgard, but it turned out--”

“I am NOT a Frost Giant!” Emily screeched, ice exploding from her hands like bullet. The shards ripped into the fish bowl, shattering glass all over her bedroom floor. She hadn’t meant to raise her voice, and she shot Thor an apologetic glance. It was just...she wasn’t stupid, she’d studied enough mythology to know what he was implying. A Frost Giant was the last thing she wanted to be compared to right now. “I-I’m so sorry.”

Thor was bewildered, and he stared at her for a long moment before regaining his composure. She hadn’t been kidding, this was...this was severe. He had to find Loki and find him fast, right now she was posing a threat to herself and everyone around her. He moved to pull her back into a tight hug, fingers threading into her hair as she fought to steady her breath.

“It’s okay, love. I swear to you, I will fix this mess. You have my word.”

Back at Stark Tower, Anne Stark was staring down her long nose at Lanie and Loki, hazel eyes narrowed into slits. “Explain. Now. Before I call the police.”

Loki held up his hands, as if in surrender, and smiled his politest smile. Lanie, who was still very much high on his kisses, fought the grin coiling at the corners of her mouth. She knew he was being facetious, it was perhaps the fakest smile she’d seen on him yet. “Don’t shoot, we are merely here to talk.”

“Really? Looks to me like you’re here to fuck in my husband’s basement. I’ll ask you one more time, Laufeyson. What are you doing here? You’ve got two seconds to convince me not to turn you in.”

Lanie’s face turned bright red and it was Loki’s turn to smirk, a dark chuckle rising from his chest. He glanced down at the floor and then at Lanie, dark sapphire eyes alight with a playfulness that made her chest ache. “Not yet.” It sounded like a promise, and Lanie shivered violently. Loki was more than happy with the reaction he’d garnered, and he gestured lazily toward Anne. “Listen, we are sorry for the intrusion, truly. Alaine works here, she left some paperwork up here while she’d been working in the library. We just got a little...distracted is all. Won’t happen again, will it, Kitten?” He asked quietly, Lanie fighting the hotness in her veins at the sound of the pet name. She could have punched his stupid adorable face.

“No, Sir.”

Anne looked more than a little disgusted, checking her watch and glancing around, as if to see if anything was amiss. When she was satisfied, she cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak, though she avoided eye contact with both individuals.

“I’m going to choose to forget that this conversation happened...otherwise I’m gonna need to pour bleach in my ears. But I’m going to need you to come with me. As an employee, Ms. Fenton, you know you’re not authorized to be up here. Follow me, Tony will decide what to do with you.”

Anne turned on her heel, and when her back was to him Loki grabbed the blueprints off the floor, folding them quickly and shoving them into a sleeve on his armor. He looked over at Lanie, whose face was wrought with panic. He reached over slowly, lacing their fingers together and giving her hand a firm squeeze. One glance was all it took, a serious look in his dark eyes as he gazed on her. They promised her a lot of things, but mostly they promised he would do whatever he could to get her out of this...and...whether it was smart of her or not, she believed him.               


	9. The Machine Pt. II

Tony was pacing back and forth when Anne dragged Loki and Lanie before him, and he turned slightly hurt eyes toward his intern. He wasn’t sure how he should start, or who he was angrier with. He chewed the inside of his lip for a moment before flashing a bitter smile at Lanie.

“So, let me get this straight. I open my business to very few people, Ms. Fenton. Stark Industries is interested in only the best technology and advancements to science in the world, so when I hire a paid intern, it means that they have accomplished outstanding work in their perspective fields. You’re a bright girl, you are. You graduated from S.T.A.R. Early College High School in Brooklyn at the age of 19, and you’re about to graduate at 21 from Berkeley with a pre-med degree. If I didn’t see potential in the work you’re doing in the advancement of medical science, you wouldn’t be here. And yet, here you are, throwing all of that back in my face. For what? Good old Reindeer Games?”

Lanie didn’t know what to say, she felt tiny next to her boss and her throat felt dry, like it was closing in on her. She couldn’t speak. Her large brown eyes were shining with unshed tears, and Loki knew he had to think of something fast. She had frozen. Loki gestured grandly with his hands, putting on an award-winning smile as he took a step toward Tony. “Anthony--”

“Tony.” He corrected icily, causing Loki to put his hands up in surrender.

“Tony. Don’t be angry with her, this is on me. Alaine was only concerned for her employer, otherwise she would have never helped me get in here.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at Loki, as if trying to figure out what he was playing at, before slowly shifting his gaze toward Lanie. He could see the fear and anxiety written on her features and the severity of his tone softened slightly. “Concerned for me? Why? I’m giving you thirty seconds.”

Loki fought the urge to roll his eyes; Tony and Anne sounded just alike...no wonder they were married. Loki had asked Lanie not to tell Tony about the blueprints...but the more he thought about it, the more he second guessed that decision. Stark hadn’t seemed like he’d known that no one remembered New York, and yet, the machines schematics were in his library, written and signed by his hand. Loki could twist that to work in their favor, and he reached around to lay a reassuring hand on the small of Lanie’s back. “There is something you should see. We came here to prove something to you...to warn you.”

Loki pulled the prints from his armor and Lanie’s eyes widened, staring at him awestricken for several seconds. Was he doing this for her? As Tony’s eyes scanned the document, Loki winked at Lanie, his hand rubbing soothing circles on the small of her back. Everything was going to be okay, he had this.

“What the hell is this?” Tony asked, glancing over at his wife before handing the documents off to her. Her brow creased, shaking her head repeatedly as she read over the document.

“When did you sign this? You told me you didn’t know anything about the mind erasing.”

“Baby, I don’t, I don’t know what this is.”

Loki couldn’t help the smirk that curled at the corner of his lips, and his dark blue eyes stared thoughtfully at Tony. He had the man of iron right where he wanted him. Clint had told him all he needed to know about all the Avengers when he’d attempted his take on Earth all those months ago, he knew how infuriated this would make someone like Stark. Someone who needed to be in control. Someone like him. “There is a reason you don’t know, and if you want to find out, you’re going to have to help me.”

Tony sneered at the god, he was more than tired of Asgardians coming to his planet and making demands. As far as he was concerned, they didn’t belong here, no matter what his opinion of Thor was. Everything had been better on Earth before they’d arrived, and that was a fact. “If you think using my intern to get to me is going to work, you’re sorely mistaken. You might have her fooled, but she doesn’t know what you and I know. Have you told her, Loki? Do you think she’d remain as blindly loyal to you if she knew what you’d done?”

Loki’s leer turned into a deep-set grimace and the mischief flickering behind his eyes faded into a deadly glare. His eyes bore into Tony, an intimidating step forward bringing the two into one another’s personal space, Loki towering over the Avenger with ease. “Keep her out of this. She knows what she needs to know, my brother made sure of that. Listen, I am not here to bring you harm, but don’t you dare threaten me.”

“What Loki means is, we are only here to help. Genuinely, Loki wants to make up for the wrongs he did in the past. We got a tip from a friendly SHIELD agent about the blueprints, I won’t say who...I don’t want to get him in trouble. But the information is legitimate. If you don’t remember doing this, SHIELD must have wiped your memory too. Who knows what all they’ve taken from people, besides the incident in New York?” Lanie added, reaching out to gently take Loki by the hand. She gave it a slight tug, and she was surprised when he responded, walking backward to reclaim his spot at her side and give Tony some space.

“What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. I would never build a machine like this in the first place, it’s an invasion of privacy on every human level.”

Anne hummed, her eyes still glued to the blueprint. “Tony, this is your handwriting, and it would be very difficult to forge a SHIELD document. I think we can take what they’re saying at face value.”

When Tony didn’t say anything, Loki grew impatient, tired of talking himself in circles. “Let me try something.” He stepped toward Tony once more, and before he could continue taking an instinctive step backwards Loki grabbed Tony roughly, the palm of his hand rigid against Stark’s forehead.

Loki allowed his magic to seep into Tony’s mind, digging for long forgotten memories and ripping them to the surface. Loki could see everything, and it took him aback slightly. There was a lot of hurt and strife and guilt inside of Tony, there was a lot to sort through. When finally, he happened upon several SHIELD related memories, Loki zeroed in as best he could, and the memory flashed like a motion picture before both men’s eyes.

_Tony was pacing back and forth in a sterile white room, his face the colour of pure fire. The rage written in his very demeanour was one even Loki had not seen in him before, and the blue glow of his arc reactor bouncing off the expressionless walls gave the entire memory an eerie presence. There was a large mahogany desk stationed at the centre of the room, and standing behind it, like a shadowy omen, was none other than Director Fury. His arms supported his weight, leaning over the desk with a permanent scowl. There, stretched out clear as day before him, were the very schematics that were currently in debate._

_“What do you mean you refuse? We’ve been working on this project for a year now, Tony!” He barked, his eye never leaving the blueprints, as if he were burning holes in it with is mind._

_“I would have NEVER agreed to this project if you had been honest with me from the beginning about what this machine really did! You lied to me! But I guess that should be expected, shouldn’t it? All SHIELD ever does is lie, if Loki had one thing right, it was that!”_

_Fury brought his fist down on the desk hard. “We lie to protect innocent people! I thought you of all people would understand that!”_

_Tony stopped pacing to look gravely at Nick, all hope for their partnership draining completely from his face. “Innocent people, Director? Or yourself? Shove your project up your ass, Nick. I won’t help you rob civilians of what rightfully belongs to them, there is no telling what all you’d take. Consider the Avengers a privatized organization, we won’t be needing your services anymore.”_

_“Stark! Don’t you dare walk out of this office! You’ll live to regret it.”_

The memory faded, and when Loki lifted his hand from Tony’s face, the pair stared at one another in absolute shock. There was betrayal manifest in every crevice of Tony’s face, and he was trembling with newfound anger. “Loki...you have my full attention. What do you need?”

Meanwhile, Emily was still wrapped tightly in Thor’s embrace, and she buried her face into his long blonde locks with a whimper. His hair was so silky and soft, and his arms were so strong around her. She honestly had never felt safer in all her life, and it was something she was in desperate need of right now.

He nestled his face into her hair, and very gently kissed the top of her forehead. “I’ll do good on my word. I’ll go find my brother for you.”

Emily’s grip on Thor’s armor tightened, and a bubble of slight hysteria rose into her throat. She was having a very bad day, she didn’t really want to be left alone right now. “Please stay. Would you wait with me until Lanie get’s home? We can look for Loki then…I don’t want to be left alone right now, if that’s alright.”

Thor’s smile was boyish and understanding, it was so sweet it could have rotted the teeth right out of her mouth and the sudden urge she felt to kiss him was barely under wraps. “Of course.” His large, strong hands went to rub her shoulders in comfort, though his brow furrowed slightly as his calloused fingers treaded across her taught muscles. “You are so stressed. I am sorry my brother has caused you grief.”

Thor kept one hand at the base of her neck, cradling her against him, while the other went to massage her left shoulder. She couldn’t help the gentle gasp that passed through her lips, and it caught Thor off guard at how sexy it sounded. He had been feeling pretty tense himself, with all that was going on with Loki, and it was very seldom that he ever had the opportunity for a moments reprieve. He leaned in very slowly, pressing a soft kiss to the crook of her neck before looking at her with curious crystal blue eyes, as if asking for permission to continue.

Thor was too close, his scent and touch overwhelming Emily as she felt his lips press against her skin. The contact sent a shiver up her spine, and when he looked at her with those puppy dog eyes it was all over. A thunderstorm was coming. Emily crushed their lips together, a happy grunt emerging from the God as his back smacked against the granite countertop in the slightly cramped kitchen.

His fingers threaded in her hair, tugging hard on tufts of wine coloured curls as her tongue fought wildly with his own. He grabbed her roughly by her hips, hoisting her up slightly so she could wrap her long legs around his waist. “You’re so beautiful.” He whispered, ravaging her neck as he peppered it with nips and love bites. “Shall we take this to the bedroom?”

“Anywhere.” She breathed, fumbling with the hem of her shirt as she fought to pull it off over her head. She tossed the scrap of clothing carelessly on the countertop, groaning as Thor turned his attention to her breasts. He buried his face into her chest, continuing his myriad of hungry kisses. “In that case, let’s be a little more creative.” He panted, arms supporting her body as he walked them over to the kitchen table. He shoved everything into the floor with one wave of his arm, all but throwing Emily down on the hard cedar wood. Climbing on top of her, he slowed down for one fleeting moment, caressing the side of her face very gently.

“This is okay?” A wide grin stretched across Emily’s face, kicking her shoes off as she reached up to grip a fistful of blonde hair.

“Okay doesn’t even begin to cover it.”


	10. You're Welcome

A smug smile graced Thor’s face at the sound of Emily’s affirmation, and he ripped her bra off with ease, giving little care to the popping sound as the clasp broke under the pressure of his hands. Emily didn’t care, writhing beneath him as he buried his face in her breasts once more, his hands trailing down her slender body and pushing her skirt up roughly. Making quick work of her underwear, two fingers slid inside her with ease, his beard continuing to tickle her chest as she bucked into his touch.

Emily’s hands clung to Thor’s thick sinewy arms, admiring the tight build of his body as he encompassed her. Her small frame was well hidden behind all his godliness. She could feel his fingers curling within her, pumping with the beat of her heart as his gentle mouth ravished her delicate skin. She mewled softly, nimble fingers gliding over his silky locks lovingly. He was so beautiful.

“Emily.” He whispered, breath hot against her ear as she ground into his hand, body begging for his complete attention. He let out an airy laugh, thick accent ringing like bells in her ears. He couldn’t get any more attractive, and the dark blush that crawled up her cheeks only aroused him further.

“P-Please…”

Emily could feel the smile nestled on his face against the flat of her stomach and his hands gripped her hips so tight she thought they might bruise. “Please what?”

The question was a low growl, and it went straight to her nether regions. His fingers only quickened their pace and she had to fight against her own primal instincts to come unwound around his digits.

“Oh Gods, just fuck me.” She grunted, pushing back aggressively and regaining some control as she sat up, capturing his lips with her own roughly. His fingernails dug into her back, dragging her off the table and holding her up only long enough to slam her back down again, bodies tangling together on the firm linoleum floor. Finally out from under the control of his thick fingers, Emily giggled as Thor allowed her to hold him down with her small arms. She trailed light, playful kisses down his toned and tan torso, humming happily as she reached his most sensitive areas.

Thor gasped, feeling her hot mouth wrap around his shaft. It had been so long since he’d felt an ecstasy like this…had connected to anyone like this. She was far more than he’d hoped to find when he came to drag his brother home, and if he wasn’t careful, he wasn’t going to want to go back. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, sturdy hands gripping her hair hard, steadying her mouth around him and holding her in place. She didn’t resist, obediently bobbing her head to the pace he set, her fingers reaching to interlace with his own. She was good at what she did, and the God panted heavily beneath her.

“Allow me to ravish you.” He instructed, knowing good and well that if she kept this up, he wouldn’t last much longer. When she didn’t move, he forcefully pinned her arms above her head and wrestled her for dominance, reversing their roles as he pulled her to her feet with utmost ease. She groaned with anticipation, body trembling with anticipation at what he might do next.

Thor’s bright blue eyes were drinking her in, staring at her like she was the most beautiful work of art he’d ever seen. He cupped her chin softly, bringing their faces together as he poured his affection into a searing kiss. It made Emily feel weak in the knees, grateful that his rigid muscles were there to support her as she swooned.

“Do you trust me?” He asked huskily, a cheerful smile written in his eyes as he watched her. She was a hot mess, _his_ hot mess. He could tell how much she was genuinely enjoying this. An excited smirk crept across her face and she nodded, heart beating in her ears and Thor moved even closer to her. He kissed her long and hard once more before walking around to her backside, continuing to very tightly hold her arms above her head. He bent her over the table, one resilient arm holding her wrists in place while the other hand steadied her hips.

Emily’s heart was beating erratically in her chest, body aching with anticipation as she wiggled her rear at Thor. It was an invitation, and he knew it, teasing her as he rubbed himself against her backside. Emily had been with a few men in her lifetime, but _no one_ had ever been this way with her. She had never wanted someone this badly. She leaned back against him, though his hands were like steel, trapping her in place as he slowly readied himself to ease into her. He took her by the hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, sliding inside with a low grunt.

Emily moaned loudly, breath knocked clean out of her as he began to thrust his hips. Thor was big, and he more than filled her to her core. She swore under her breath, grateful as she felt him adjust slightly so that she’d be more comfortable. He put the full weight of his body against her back, his large biceps encapsulating her. He held her against him tightly, like a precious secret, burying his bearded face into her shoulder as he bit down affectionately into her neck. She cried out, rocking her body back and forth as he pounded into her.

Thor laughed jovially, both at the sheer happiness and relief she was making him feel, and at the fact that little Milo was growling at scratching at the back of his legs. “I am not hurting her, tiny one.” He muttered, earning a half-laugh half-groan from Emily.

“Mmm, no Sir.”

Thor smiled as he nuzzled her in response, heaps of blonde hair spilling into her vision as their bodies seemingly melded together. Emily’s heart was bursting, body on complete and utter sensory overload. His manhood massaged her into submission, and she could feel her legs beginning to tremble. “U-ugh, Thor.”

“Say my name.” It was an impassioned whisper, and Emily could feel her whole body unraveling, as if she was made of string. Heat spread like a wildfire throughout her, and she ground back into his hips hard, nails clawing into the cedar wood beneath her.

“Thor!”

“God of what?” He barked playfully, a resonating slap to her ass causing her to yelp as she was forced even rougher against the table.

“Thunder!” She couldn’t take it anymore, clamping down around him as her arousal spilled over, orgasm crashing down like a wave of pure euphoria around her. Thor growled loudly, spilling his thick seed inside of her as he fought to not break the entire fucking table with his brute strength. The moment she felt it, ice shot out of her hands like a rocket, splintering off like a frag grenade. It shattered everything in its wake, and Thor looked down with love-stricken, bemused azure eyes.

“Oh, that was hot.”

Meanwhile, Loki and Lanie were heading down the concrete steps of Stark Tower, feeling pretty damn satisfied with themselves. A large smirk was painted happily on Loki’s face, and Lanie glanced at him from underneath her eyelashes.

“What does this mean, Loki?”

He raised a thin black eyebrow at her, midnight blue eyes looking her over curiously. “This small victory of ours? It _means_ that Stark is now right where we want him. We have secured his aid.”

Lanie very gently pushed him back against the side of her Volkswagen, forcing him to look at her. What she was asking was important. “No, I mean this.” She gestured between the two of them. “…us.”

Loki’s smirk grew further. “You mean the kiss.”

Lanie’s face turned a dark maroon, but she nodded, suddenly unwilling to meet his gaze. He seemed to play with the idea of what she was implying for a moment before responding, and while his grin never left, his eyes darkened sadly.

“I’m bad for you, Lanie. I will always be bad for you.”

“I don’t care.” She blurted out, watching his expression carefully. He was so hard for her to read, she was never sure how he was going to react to something she did or said. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him away.

“You don’t understand. I will _never_ be the hero. I will never be what you want me to be.”

Lanie folded her arms against her chest in a pout. “Don’t presume to know what I want.”

Loki sighed, moving towards her slowly. His eyes stared intently into her own, his body language screaming with an intensity that almost frightened her, though she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. He didn’t stop until their faces were inches apart, reaching out to cup the side of her face with his hand. “Listen to me. You don’t understand what you are asking.”

“You kissed me back. You know there is something between us. A mutual understanding if nothing else.” She asserted through gritted teeth, frustrated that he wouldn’t even consider the notion. Her big brown eyes were bleeding with emotion, and Loki had to break their gaze. He was unsure of what exactly she wanted from him.

“Get in the car, Fair One.” That was all he said, and when she tore away from him to climb inside the car with a huff, he instantly regretted it. He had no idea what his pull toward her was, but he didn’t like the idea of her being upset with him. He took a deep breath, walking over to the passenger side with a dejected scowl.

Back at the apartment, Thor was working away in front the refrigerator. All that fucking had made him terribly hungry, and he had a lightening fast metabolism as it was. He was busy smearing a glob of mayonnaise on his sizable slice of white bread when he heard a mischievous giggle from behind him.

“I wonder who that could be.” He chided playfully, turning to see Emily draped in his dark red cape. It hung around her wide hips loosely, accentuating her feminine frame as she very slowly slid it down her chest to reveal her breasts.

“See anything you like?” Her coy smile matched with the gentle beach waves that fluttered at her waist was enough to pique the God’s interest all over again, a guttural growl erupting from his chest as he wiggled his platinum eyebrows at her.

“Why doesn’t the little Midgardian go spread herself like the goddess she is down on the bed in the back, hmm? Maybe then you’ll find out.”

Emily squealed like a happy child, sauntering off toward her bedroom while Thor turned his attention back to his sandwich. He piled on the pickles, humming to himself as he thought about all the ways he was going to make her squirm. That had been some of the best sex in his very long existence…and that was saying something. The God was so lost in his thoughts, that it didn’t even register in his brain as a car door was slammed just outside the apartment. His brother was home.

Lanie had given Loki the silent treatment the entire commute home, despite his numerous attempts to talk to her, and it was driving Loki up the wall. Loki hated being ignored, and he especially hated being ignored by someone he genuinely gave a shit about. He called out her name as she stalked toward the house, and when she didn’t answer, he grabbed her wrist hard.

“Lanie!” He jerked her back toward him, and she struggled to break free of his steel grip.

“You’re hurting me.” She whined, though it wasn’t enough to make him let go. He only gripped her tighter, pulling her into a rough, wet kiss. Lanie could feel her annoyance sputtering off, and she melted into the kiss against her better judgement. She let out a tiny moan, and he laughed gently to himself at her reaction. She hated him for it.

“You’re so confusing!” She pushed him back, jerking her arm out of his grasp as he finally relented and let her go. “Loki, please. Don’t play games, not like this.”

Loki shook his head slowly, reaching out to very delicately tuck a strand of curly hair behind her ear. “You asked me to tell you what this is, but you already have an answer from me. What you do with that information is up to you.” He gave her a soft, uncharacteristically genuine smile before winking and turning on his heel, making his way toward the living room door.

Lanie’s brow was furrowed, a perplexed expression etched into her every feature. “But…Loki…wait…” She didn’t understand, and he knew it, smirking wide as a Cheshire cat as he checked behind him in his peripheral vison to make sure she was running after him. He knew this stupid girl would chase him to the ends of the Earth, and it made an odd happiness radiate throughout his chest. He liked it more than he would ever dare admit.

When the door swung open, Loki announced his presence like he was the Queen of England.  “Your savior has…oh, dear.”

Lanie followed hot on his heels, her mind only wrapped in further confusion as she smacked straight into Loki’s back, who had halted in his tracks at the sight before him.

“Ah…brother…how many times did mother lecture you about roaming the house skyclad, hmm?” Loki drawled lazily, an eyebrow arched in amusement as Lanie peered around his body at Thor in horror. There he was, six feet of thunder, eating a ham sandwich in her kitchen with a full erection.

Thor’s expression brightened. “AH! You’ve returned! Thank you for finding my brother, Emily will be relieved.”

Lanie looked like her jaw was going to hit the floor, and Loki very slowly reached to cup his hand over her eyes. She didn’t stop him, too in shock to move or speak as Thor’s eyes trailed from his brother’s face to his bulging package.

“Is this rude in their culture?” He asked curiously, taking another large bite of his sandwich. Loki fought a laugh, though he’d never let on that he was as genuinely amused as he was. He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation and let out a loud sigh.

“Thor, this is rude in _everyone’s_ culture.”

Thor didn’t have time to respond before a soft voice was heard from the hallway. “Thor? What is taking so long?” When Emily’s half naked, cape-clad body came into view it was Loki’s turn to turn five thousand different colors, adverting his eyes as Lanie wiggled out of his reach.

“EMILY?!” She screeched, eyes wide as she looked her friend up and down. Emily struck a sheepish pose, smiling a toothy grin at her best friend as Thor simply shrugged his shoulders at what he perceived to be an unnecessary commotion.

“Well…on the bright side…I feel lot’s better?” Thor reached behind her and grabbed a handful of ass with a deafening slap, a shrill squeak springing out of her involuntarily. He had been more than happy to help with her little situation, and the smile he flashed could have lit an entire stadium.

“When a lady needs me, I am a willing servant. You’re welcome.”        


	11. Tumman Virran Taa

The next two months had passed by like a blur. Thor and Loki had been crashing with Emily and Lanie in their guest bedroom toward the back of the house, and while Thor often spent the night in Emily’s bed, it was becoming a little...tense, housing the brothers in the same bedroom. Tony was working periodically with Lanie and Loki on reverse blueprints in the few precious hours of spare time he had a week, and both Gods had been relentlessly trying to aid Emily in both controlling and utilizing her newfound abilities.

Thor had all but given up on any and all attempts at bringing his brother home, content with the level of interest his brother was displaying in helping Emily become a trained sorceress...or as close to one as was humanly possible. Loki wasn’t hurting anyone, and for now, Thor’s casual sexual relationship with Emily was far more interesting than running around playing babysitter and tattle-telling on his little brother.

As for Lanie, her budding relationship with Loki was off to a confusing start. On the surface things were great; Loki was attentive, witty, and the pair had grown rather fond of reading together, or going off on little adventures that usually ended in Thor yelling and items getting smashed. But deeper than that...there was a turmoil brewing inside of them both. Lanie was falling helplessly in love with him, and it was obvious as the nose on her face...you could take one look at her, and her eyes would be holding all the blind admiration and affection in the world. Loki, however, while perfectly aware of his own blossoming feelings of comradery toward her, was terrified of the idea that she was getting too close to him. He didn’t want to let her in and have everything fall apart around him, like it never failed to do, and nor was he overly keen of allowing himself to eventually break her heart. She deserved better than him.

Those were the thoughts swirling around in his head as he lay at her side that morning, staring at her porcelain skin as he very gently caressed the side of her face. She was sleeping, and she looked like an absolute angel as she lay there. He thought she was so beautiful, and it bothered him more than a little that she was just another thing he had to be jealous of. Thor got to pretend he didn’t love Emily, and still worshipped her body in every single way she deserved. Loki couldn’t do that, not with Lanie. The pair had gotten closer than he’d usually allow, and he knew things about his Fair One that were plenty enough to keep him at arms distance...like the fact that she was a mere virgin. His innocent little Lanie...he’d already corrupted her enough.

He leaned in, kissing her still lips as softly as possible, whispering that he was sorry, though he knew she couldn’t hear him. He wasn’t even supposed to be in here right now, but Thor had been driving him crazy with his snoring, and...well, if he was being honest Loki had been dwelling on her all night. He needed her to remember, he needed this to be over. If she was going to find out what all he’d done when Stark restored her memories and break his heart into a thousand pieces, he may as well rip the band-aid off now. “I wish things could be different, I truly do. Maybe in another life.” He whispered, laying his hand on her forehead as he’d done with Tony all those months prior.

Meanwhile, Emily and Thor were sitting on wooden steps in the backyard, sharing drinks as they watched Milo chase birds happily from one side of the picket fence to the other. They had been waiting on Loki for a while, as it was time for another one of Emily’s training sessions, but in the meantime the pair had been snuggling in that damned blood red cape. Emily had it pulled up to her nose, contentedly breathing in the scent of her favorite person in the world. It made Thor laugh.

“I’m right here, sweet girl. You needn’t sniff the cape.”

She blushed and hid her smile from him as he leaned in, tickling her with his beard as he peppered her sensitive skin with kisses. She was squirming, peals of laughter erupting from her chest as she playfully fought to wiggle out of his reach. They were cutting up and rolling around with one another when Loki stormed from the house, eyes alight with unshed tears as he forced an unamused smile toward the happy couple. They might have had a casual relationship, but it was more than Loki ever thought he and Lanie would have, and it was rubbing salt in an open wound.

“Get up, Emily. We have work to do.”

Lanie’s mind, on the other hand, was flooded with unpleasant visions as she shot up in her bed, breathing labored. Her body was trembling, and no amount of shaking her head would clear the horrible memories dancing behind her eyes. She could see the city burning…she and her brother had ridden into the city to visit their mothers grave. So many were screaming, buildings were crumbling…bodies littered the annihilated asphalt. She remembered holding her brother Niall’s hand as they ran through the ruins, gunfire and rubble whirring all around them.

They were so lucky to be alive. Lanie had managed to make it to the checkpoint set out by the police in the subway terminal relatively unscathed, but Niall, who had brought up the rear in an attempt in sheltering his elder sister had been shot in the back. Lanie had spent countless hours that night tending to his wounds, holding him, talking to him about how in the world their lives had gotten this fucked up. She could have lost him…would have lost him, had she not been medically trained to deal with a crisis like that. Niall survived with only a minor limp from some nerve damage that trailed down his left leg, and up until recently Lanie’s false memories had had her believing that it was an injury from a car accident that never even transpired.

When the memories subsided, and her vision cleared, she sat in her bed still as a statue for several moments. Is that what Loki had done? Loki had wrought so much destruction, and she had to ask herself whether she was okay with that. She had known for a long while now that he was responsible for death and devastation but seeing it…living it…it had knocked the breath out of her. She numbly slid out of her bed, wiping tears from her cheeks that she hadn’t been aware she was crying. She reached for her doorknob, taking a shaky breath as she tried hard to reason with herself. She needed to collect her thoughts before she walked out and accused him of anything, she needed a moment.

In the yard, Loki and Emily were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The fighting was successfully keeping Loki’s mind occupied, and he was grateful for the distraction as he focused on helping his friend hone her abilities. Emily was a good student, albeit a little stubborn, and he was relatively proud of her progress, though he’d never admit it. He was in the midst of teaching her how to throw up an ice wall…though, for whatever reason, Emily was struggling to hold her focus. Loki blamed Thor, who was wiggling his dumb blonde eyebrows at her every chance he got.

“Pay attention please, we’ve been at this for thirty minutes. Close your eyes, feel past your emotions, reach out with your every sense. If you dig deep enough, you’ll tap into the energy you seek. There is a personal magic hidden away inside us all, you need only find it. You seem to only be able to do so when you’re angry, and that is an issue. You are a _sorceress_ , emotions are for children.” He instructed, watching her intently as her eyes fluttered closed for the umpteenth time. Loki’s tone was clipped, and it rubbed Emily the wrong way, though she bit her tongue. Loki was a decent teacher, and she didn’t want to disrespect him when he was taking time out of…well, whatever horrible things Loki did in his free time, to help her.

She focused her thoughts and emotions inward, searching inside of herself for any hint of ice magic she could call to the surface. Loki was already in a defensive stance, waiting for his pupil to come at him with _something_ at the very least, but try as she may…nothing was happening. She was distracted…a lot had happened the last two months. Loki couldn’t even tell her why she’d been gifted frost giant abilities when her life’s essence mixed with his, but it happened…and it wasn’t something she’d ever wanted or asked for. Thor on the other hand…Thor was something she _desperately_ wanted to continue investing her time and energy into...and with him sitting so damn close to her…

“Loki I—”

“No. Focus.” He interrupted, glaring icily at his brother as he took immediate notice of what was going on. His dumb oaf of a brother was sneaking fistfuls of ass every now and again, and Loki could feel his face reddening in anger. Emily squirmed, choking back a giggle as she honestly tried her hardest to concentrate. _Come on Emily…one…two…_

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather focus on this?” Thor whispered, his hand slipping a little further north than her bum. She shrieked in delight, eyes popping open as she wriggled away from his grabby hands. Emily’s sides hurt she was laughing so hard, and Loki finally exploded.

“You know what? I am done here. It is obvious that you care nothing for anything I have to say, I don’t know why I’m even here.”

The roar that had erupted from him like a volcano startled Emily and Thor both into an awkward silence, staring at the God like he’d suddenly sprouted a third eye. “Loki I…I’m sorry…”

“You should be. I don’t owe you anything, _Ramsay_ , and if you aren’t going to give me an ounce of respect as your teacher then I will _not_ stand here and be bullied by—”

It was Loki’s turn to be cut off as Lanie shot out of the house and into the backyard like a whirlwind. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, and there was a level of anger written in them that Loki had never seen before. Good…anger was good. It was easier if she hated him. He refused to meet her gaze, turning his face from her as she stalked toward him.

“No, you look at me, Odinson.” She spat, refusing to call him son of Laufey. He needed to know he was in trouble. “Don’t you dare speak to her that way! What the hell is going on?”

Loki’s face did not move, and he refused to speak, an eerie silence befalling the entire yard as Lanie’s eyes lingered on him, watching his rapid breathing shake his entire body. He was visibly upset, blue eyes filled with varying shades of regret as they bore a metaphorical hole into the grass. Lanie took a deep breath, to calm herself, and reached to very gently touch his arm.

“Loki? Listen, I’m not angry, I just want to understand—”

Loki laughed at her, though the sound was cold and distorted, sending a chill straight up her back. When he finally turned to look at her, she had to take an instinctive step backward. The expression plastered on his face was terrifying. “Oh? You should be, Alaine. Did you not get the message loud and clear? I am a _monster_ and everything I touch turns to ruin. Why don’t you ask your brother if you’d like an example?”

The hurt that flashed across her face was fleeting, and her body language quickly cooled into a stony demeanor. She shoved him hard, though the god barely budged an inch. Normally he’d have found it funny, but Loki didn’t have it in him to crack a smile at her fragile attempt to hurt him, shaking his head sadly. Such a stupid girl. She half expected him to retaliate, but he didn’t. He just stood there, a broken self-loathing nestled into his very being. She shoved him again, harder this time, pissed off that she wasn’t garnering a rise out of him in the slightest. He shuddered, inwardly shattering, but still as a statue. He’d never lay a finger on her and she knew it, and perhaps…that’s what pissed her off the most. He went to such great lengths to pretend he felt nothing towards her, and then he’d pull shit like this. She knew he was a liar.

“You know what? Fine. If you want to shut me out, it’s not my loss, it’s yours. I wish you well, Loki, I really do.” And with that, Lanie turned, making sure her back was to him before she allowed herself to break into a thousand pieces. He didn’t get to see her like this. She broke into a sprint, running into the apartment and slamming the screen door behind her. She couldn’t do this anymore…she had to get out.

“Lanie wait!” Emily called out, shooting Loki the nastiest look she could muster as she did so. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” And with that, she took off after her best friend like a bat out of hell and left the two Asgardian god’s alone and distraught in the empty, desolate confines of the back yard.         


	12. Tumman Virran Taa Pt. II

Lanie’s heart was broken. Tears were tearing through her body like a storm, and it was all she could do to gasp for air as she ripped open her car door and climbed inside. Emily was running after her, quickly grabbing for the passenger side door and sliding in as she revved the engine.  Emily didn’t like the look in her friend’s eyes…they were wild, aloof, distant…she didn’t look like herself.

“Lanie, sweetie, think for a moment. Where are you going?” She reached for her hand, giving it a sympathetic squeeze as she watched for any sign on Lanie’s face that she’d heard her. There was none. “Lanie?”

“I’m going to see mom. I need to talk to her.”

Emily sighed heavily, wide grey eyes welling with concern. Her brow furrowed, leaning in to wrap an arm around her best friend and hug her has best she could from the seat adjacent to her. Her hands petted her brown curls gently, and her lips curled into a slight frown. “No, honey. You’re not driving that far into the city like this, you aren’t thinking straight…and going _there_ isn’t going to make you feel any better, believe me. The only person you need to be talking to right now is Smirnoff.”

Lanie finally turned to look at her, surprise mixing with the pain as she batt her eyelashes stupidly at her friend. “What? You know I can’t…I’m _Mormon_.”

“Are you? Ever since Loki and Thor popped into our lives, you’ve been different. I know the news that they were God’s shook your faith a little, you haven’t been to Sacrament in weeks. Live a little, Lanie, let me take care of you for once. I promise you’ll feel better.”

Nothing Emily said had been a lie, Lanie _had_ been questioning everything she’d ever been taught to believe. She’d even been sneaking cups of tea to sooth her own nerves these last few weeks, which she’d been feeling guilty as hell about. Maybe that was her problem, she thought, maybe she really did just care too much about _everything_. “You know what? You’re right…”

Emily smiled empathetically at her and gave her a loving pat on the back. “Switch places with me.”

As he watched the smoke rise from the back of the beat-up Volkswagen, which was now speeding out of the drive-way with a loud screech, Thor’s eyes clouded with an angsty gloom. What had his brother done? He wanted to approach him, but he knew he was going to have to be delicate. He didn’t want to push Loki so hard that he lost him, not again. Not when things had been going so well.

“Brother…” He said cautiously, turning to look at Loki, who hadn’t moved an inch from the spot where Lanie had shoved him. Thor was honestly a little frightened when he didn’t get a response. Loki was never like this, this was highly unusual behavior, even for him. Despite being a few thousand years old, by Asgardian standards Loki was only a teenager, and Thor knew that. They both were very young, and Loki was still so bad at reigning in his emotions. Thor walked forward a bit and placed a large hand on his brother’s shoulder. Loki didn’t even flinch. “Brother, look at me. You can’t keep doing this to people who care about you. You’ll wind up all alone.”

“Am I not already alone?” It was barely a whisper, but Thor heard it and it was enough to light a fire beneath him. It pissed him off when Loki got in these moods, it was as if nothing he ever said or did for him was enough.

“Loki, don’t you do that. You are my little brother. I love you more dearly than anyone, and you throw it back in my face like it means nothing to you _all the time_! I am sick of it, and I won’t let you do it to that innocent woman. She isn’t stuck with you like I am, she doesn’t have to put up with it.”

Loki turned utterly broken eyes toward his brother, and Thor almost regretted saying anything. Loki was teetering on the edge, and he didn’t need to push him over. Thor moved to stand in front of him before he could say thing and grabbed him by the arms roughly. He shook him slightly, cerulean eyes bleeding as they made contact with the tears shining in his brothers own.

“Loki, I mean this. You are more than what you’ve become. I thought the world of you…I still do. I don’t want to distrust you. Give up these horrible things, be the brother I grew up with…and don’t let her walk out that door again. You and I both know you will come to regret it if you do.”

Loki wanted to scream in his brother’s face, but he didn’t have it in him. Thor was being more sentimental than Loki was comfortable with, and while he wanted to lash out in anger, the point was absolutely moot. Between Lanie’s outburst and Thor’s pleas, there was too much pint up inside of Loki for him to push back. He loved her, and he loved Thor, no matter what he ever said or did to the contrary.

“Did you ever think for one moment that I might have done this on purpose? I have to save her from me before she gets herself killed.”

“Loki you said yourself that you never wanted the throne. You only wanted to be my equal. If anything that has come out of your mouth is the truth, go out there and _be_ my equal. Save the day, be her hero. Enslaving this world won’t earn you anything you seek, that I promise you. I don’t even want the blasted throne myself at this point.”

Loki’s eyebrows shot up in pure surprise. “Wait…what?”

Thor only smiled. “Yes, brother. You think _I’m_ the one who doesn’t pay attention. Clearly it’s the other way around.”

Meanwhile, there was a little hole in the wall of a bar about three miles from the apartment, called The Dark River. Emily and Lanie were sitting on stools, well into their fourth drink. Emily was all but chugging a Jack and Coke, while Lanie, who had never done much drinking before in her life, was sipping at her Pina Colada like she was fighting to hold back vomit. There was enough Rum in her system to kill a small child, and she was loving every moment of it.

“Damn it Emmie…why didn’t you tell me life could taste this _great_.” She slurred, holding onto her glass like it was her lifeline. Emily was laughing at Lanie, whose face had been red for a good thirty minutes from all the alcohol.

“Oh, my friend. Here is to assholes and twenty years of Mormon sobriety down the drain.” She announced, raising her glass in a toast and clinking them together. She was happy that it made her friend giggle, she thought she deserved to be happy. Damn Loki for all he was worth.

“I love you…you know that? You’ve always been my ride or die…I don’t need a fucking God.”

Emily finished chugging and merrily slapped her glass down onto the bar table with a loud thud. “Hell yeah, scream it to Asgard buddy, you don’t need them!”

“I don’t need a fucking God!” Lanie repeated, much louder this time, and while Emily was absolutely living for it, they were getting weird glares from all sorts of Christian-y looking biker men and Emily threw a protective arm around her friend, trying and failing to hide a snicker.

“I think they have the wrong impression, but worse things have happened, Jesus drank wine, let’s get sloshed.”

Lanie laughed so hard she thought coconut juice might squirt out of her nose, and she gripped Emily tightly as she tried to steady herself. She couldn’t tell if her stomach hurt from cackling so hard or from alcohol poisoning, but either way, she was all about it. “Isn’t that your life’s motto? ‘Worse things have happened, let’s get sloshed’?”

Emily was about to respond when something from the far corner of the bar caught her attention. There was a group of rowdy frat boys harassing their waitress for being slow to refill their beverages. Once such boy, a broad, well-muscled kid with shaggy dirty blonde hair stood, snatching his beer off the table and sloshing it back into her face. “When my friends ask for refills they get them, Miranda. We always have this issue with you!”

Lanie knew the moment she saw it that Emily was about to come across the floor at them, and she clutched her arm as tight as she could. “Emmie…”

Any trace of merriment had drained from Emily’s face, and a deep hiss radiated from her chest as she made eye contact with the boy. “Hey! Asshat! What’s your deal?”

Her yell got his attention loud and clear, and the moment his mud-colored brown eyes made contact with hers, her blood felt like it had run cold. This guy was giving her serious bad vibes, but there was at least a pint of liquid courage running through her veins, and she was way too far gone to care. “Yeah you, shitbag, leave the lady alone.”

It was about that time that Thor and Loki materialized via Bifrost in front of The Dark River’s double doors. Thor had made a point to ask Heimdall where the ladies had run off to, so Loki could at least attempt to make things right. Loki was looking at his feet, a little anxious to go inside. Thor snorted. “Quit being a quim, brother. Go on in.”

Loki shot Thor a nasty glare, though Thor could do little more than chuckle as he watched his little brother slick his hair behind his ears and adjust his waistcoat in preparation to see her. Loki had never given this much thought to a woman before, and Thor wasn’t about to let him fuck it up, this would be good for him. Little did the God know, however, that they were about to walk into an absolute shit show.

Loki flung the doors wide open, his eyes hopeful as he scanned the room for his little Lanie…and when they finally fell on her, his whole expression twisted. The entire group of frat boys had gotten up to surround their friend, who had a weak Emily pinned to the bar table.

There was a lankier boy, with long brown hair who pried him off of her with some difficulty and pushed him out of the way. “Miles, dude. She said no, get off.”

Miles’s eyes darkened, and he cocked his head to the side slowly. “Oh? What is it Chad, don’t tell me you’re a pussy? Or maybe you want _her_ pussy for yourself. Fine, I’ll take the friend.” He growled, grabbing hold of the neck of Lanie’s dress with an iron grip.

Thor reached for his hammer, blood boiling as he looked on his Emily, who was struggling to get to her friend through the sea of men around her. Thunder cracked deafeningly as Mjolnir flew to his side, though Loki was already on the prowl. Miles shoved a hand up Lanie’s dress, a shrill cry leaving her lips as Loki stalked forward.

“Don’t you touch her.” He growled, grabbing hold of the back of Miles’s neck roughly and jerking it unnaturally to the left of his body. There was a loud, wet snap, and the entire room fell silent as his lifeless body smacked the hardwood floor.

“Everyone leave now.” Thor bellowed, another boom of Thunder bouncing off the walls as screaming customers and frat boys alike poured out of the establishment. He looked hurriedly from Loki to Emily and back again, panic seizing him as he thought of all the possible ways this could go wrong. He scooped Emily up into his arms, petting her hair possessively as he cradled her. She was too far gone to care, frightened and drunk, and crying softly into his tight white t-shirt.

“Loki, we need to leave. Grab her and let’s go, before the police get here.”

Loki wasn’t listening, body trembling with rage. He forced Lanie up against the wall hard, not even caring that they both were sobbing. His dark blue eyes stared into her own hard, searching for any reason at all for why his girl would legitimately put herself into a situation _this_ stupid. “Do you have any idea what he could have done to you?! You absolute—I don’t care how badly I hurt your feelings, don’t you _ever_ do anything like this again!”

Lanie tried to push him off of her, but she just couldn’t fight him, finally giving up as his nails dug into her wrists hard. She let out a loud, unintelligible wail, heartbroken beyond believe that she had just been assaulted and he was _this_ angry with her. “Why do you even care?”

“Because I love you!” The scream seemed to ricochet off the bleach white walls of the establishment, and it knocked the air out of everyone standing there—Thor included.

“You…what?” Lanie couldn’t believe anything she was hearing, and from the looks of it, Loki couldn’t quite believe he’d said it either. He couldn’t take it back now, easing up on one of her wrists to softly caress her cheek with the back of his hand.

“You heard me.” He swallowed hard, staring at her intently, anxiously, as he awaited her reaction. She seemed to cave into him instantly, curling into his chest with gentle sobs, as she titled her face to collide with his own. The kiss was passionate, tasting of salt as their tears mixed together. Loki nuzzled her sweetly, for once, hands holding her against him like she was the most precious gold in Asgard.

Thor cleared his throat loudly, eyes glued to the back door. “Not to break up this little love fest, but I hear sirens.”

Loki thought for a moment, afraid to lose the one good thing he had going on in his life right now. Not today. “Heimdall! Open the Bifrost!”         


	13. Ascending to Asgard

There was a bright white light that engulfed them suddenly. A whir of colors seemed to form a tunnel around all the world, and Lanie and Emily both were left speechless by the gloriousness of it all. Emily could have stared into the bifrost for hours, but she was becoming fraught with nausea, and had to screw her eyes shut tightly. She could feel Thor’s large arms tighten around her protectively, and she nuzzled her tear-streaked cheeks against the soft feel of his white shirt.

Lanie was in absolute awe. Loki was looking down at her from underneath his long black lashes, a small smile settled at the corners of his lips as he watched the sheer wonderment dancing behind the eyes of the woman he loved. He wanted to show her the world, he wanted to keep that look on her face as long as he should be alive to do so. It was a feeling he was unaccustomed to, and he sincerely hoped that whatever was to lie before them in Asgard would not rip this all away. He had a lot to think about.

When at last the ground beneath them settled and a picture came into view, Thor sat Emily on her own two feet and clapped her on the back heartily. “Behold! Asgard!” There was a bright smile plastered on Thor’s face, and it made Emily feel so guilty for what transpired shortly afterword.

Emily’s face had greened, and though she tried to admire the bronze hue that seemed to permeate the whole of the realm, her stomach was flipping around inside of her like a fish out of water. She started to say something, eager to confirm the beauty of her friend’s homeland when she involuntarily leaned over to vomit.

Thor’s face fell immediately, flying into a hyper-protective stance as he went to make sure she was alright. Loki had burst into hard laughter, not realizing that Lanie was struggling to crawl out of his embrace, as she sprinted to her best friend’s side and hurled right beside her. Thor lifted his eyes snarkily to look at his brother, who sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And she wonders why I was angry at her...Fair One, what have you done to yourself?”

Loki walked to come pull her hair out of her face for her, despite being met with some resistance. She was whimpering, she didn’t want him to see her like this, and he knelt down beside her with a raised eyebrow. “Hush, now, it’s nothing I’ve not seen Thor do many a time. Are you sorry?” He asked, his expression grave as she glanced up pitifully at him and nodded.

He kissed the top of her head and nodded. “Good girl.” He placed a hand lovingly against the small of her back and looked over his shoulder at Thor. “You should probably speak with Heimdall. I’ve got them.”

Fuck. Thor had been so preoccupied with Emily that he’d forgotten they were literally having a grand puke-infested display before the keeper and protector of the entire realm, though he watched with a silent and stoic amusement. Thor stood, allowing Loki to transform his Midgardian clothing back into armor as he called Mjolnir to his side and attempted to halfway resemble to prince he was supposed to be. He flashed a sheepish smile and opened his arms wide. “Heimdall! It has been far too long.”

Heimdall’s bright gold eyes lingered on Loki for a long while before meeting the gaze of Thor, who was waiting patiently with a painfully cheerful demeanour. The God didn’t even crack a smile. “Tell me, son of Odin. Do you expect me to allow Loki into this kingdom free of restraint?”

Thor sighed...there it was. This was the big reason Thor wasn’t ready to face Heimdall, and least of all his father. They had sent him to Midgard months ago to find his brother...and here they were, Loki as free as a bird and two hungover humans in tow. Odin was going to be livid. He had to be careful about how he chose his next words, that he knew for certain. His brother’s fate was in his hands, and while he loved Loki more than anything, it was a delicate situation. He knew if he gave Loki to their father it would be a betrayal like none other in Loki’s mind. He’d never forgive him. But on the other hand, despite Loki’s budding relationship with Lanie there was no way Thor could be certain that his brother could be trusted enough to roam free...and would their father even allow that?

Thor bit his lip, making a split-second decision and praying to Yggdrasil itself that it was what was best for everyone involved in this mess. He grimaced deeply, giving a tired shrug of the shoulders as he struggled to articulate what he was trying to say.

“Yes, Heimdall, I do expect that of you. Loki is my brother, and he is my concern. I will be having a word with my father before anyone touches him, is that understood?”

Heimdall didn’t look happy, his all-seeing eyes fixated bitterly on the Frost Giant who had tried to kill him and have him tried for treason on numerous occasions. Thor could hear him grit his teeth, but at the end of the day Thor was the prince, and Heimdall was sworn under oath to obey the crown. “Yes, Sir.”

Thor could see the smirk that was beginning to crawl up Loki’s face, and he shot him a menacing glare. They were going to have to be smart if they were going to keep Loki out of prison, and there would be no wiggle room for any of Loki’s shenanigans. Thor sincerely hoped he realized that.

 

 

A few hours ticked by, Loki having had enough magic to keep himself and Lanie concealed while Thor put Emily to bed in his chambers and went to have words with his parents. Loki had taken Lanie back to his old bedroom, watching her sleep off the alcohol for a long while. He lay there, her fragile form nestled against his body as her head lay against his chest, and he couldn’t help the thoughts running through his mind. Thor’s speech about being his equal had hit Loki harder than his brother probably realized, and it had the God questioning everything. Did he really want to rule Midgard? Was there any point to that? Even when Stark finished the machine Loki would still have the Avengers to worry about, and he was left without the extra power from the Tesseract and the Mind Stone.

Loki put his hands over his face and let out a loud whine. The fucking Tesseract. Thanos was going to hunt him down and gut him from the inside out when he found out how badly he fucked up during the Battle of New York. No amount of world conquering was going to fix that now...and what of Lanie? What would become of her when Thanos had his head on a pike? He should have never involved her in any of this, but it was too late for him to take it back now. He’d allowed himself to feel for her, and the more he pushed her away the worse it was going to be on them both. What was done was done. He’d made his bed, now he had to lay in it. They both did.

He tried to push these thoughts from his mind as he felt her stir beside him, and gingerly threaded his fingers into her soft brunette curls. “Fair One? Are you feeling alright?”        

She groaned, though there was a happy smile lighting up her expression as she realized who she was snuggling with. She buried her face into his chest and inhaled deeply. “My head kind of hurts, but I’m happy. I really hope I didn’t dream what happened in the bar.” She admitted quietly, much of Loki’s worry lines easing slightly as he chuckled at the small girl in his arms.

“That depends entirely on what you remember.”

Lanie almost didn’t want to say it, for fear that her subconscious had made it up. She remembered a lot of things, terrifying things...she was ninety percent sure she’d been sexually assaulted in some form, and her head was pounding from the massive hang over all that rum had left in its wake. But there was a small light amid all of those terrible things, and it made all of her pain nearly disappear entirely. “You told me that you loved me.”

Loki couldn’t stop the grin that twitched at the corner of his mouth as he bent down to very gently place a kiss to her forehead, his arms tightening against her, as if he were afraid she might vanish. “That I did, darling.”

“Did I say it back?” She asked, her breath hitching in her throat as her chest constricted with a feeling she’d never felt before. She wished so badly that she could remember, but it was all a haze, and the entire memory was all mixed up in her brain. Loki was unsure how to respond, a mock-hurt tone blurting from his mouth as he lightly teased her.

“Of course not, for who could ever love Loki? Surely not the beautiful maiden squared away in my arms.”

Lanie burst into laughter, playfully pinching him under his arm as she rolled on top of him. “Drama queen.”

“Ouch!” Loki cried, though in truth he’d barely felt it, and he snickered as he found her legs curling around his waist. She was straddling him, and his hands snaked around her hips as he gazed on her for a long moment, eyes dancing with a sweet, gentle mischief. The ball was in her court, he enjoyed seeing her like this. Free, wild...chaotic. It was times like this when she truly felt like his human equal.

Lanie leaned forward slowly, stopping an inch from his nose. She combed her fingers through his long black curls and hummed contentedly to herself. “I do love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

“Oh, darling I know.” It was less a statement and more an impassioned growl, Loki’s lips closing the distance between them as he crashed into her like a wave. He wasn’t used to this, to being loved, to being worshipped. It was intoxicating. Her lips were like oxygen he couldn’t readily breathe enough of, like an addictive poison only she provided. He’d been hooked since that night in the library, and he was fairly certain he could never live without it again.

Meanwhile, Emily had woken up entirely alone in an unfamiliar environment. She might have panicked, save for the blessing Thor had left her gently wrapped in. That damned red cape was swaddled carefully around her, and it smelled just like him…a light mixture of sandalwood and earth. It was enough to make her feel safe, and she sat up to curiously examine her new surroundings. When the cloak fell to her sides, she looked down to notice that she was wearing some weird, dark maroon dress that she’d never seen before.

“He changed my fucking—” Her swear sputtered off abruptly as her eyes fell on the pile of clothes at her bedside, realizing that the fowl smell wafting in her immediate vicinity was coming from her clothing. _Awww, fuck, that’s right…I threw up everywhere._ She groaned loudly and buried her face into Thor’s silky black sheets, embarrassed that he had had to see that.

She pulled his dark red comforter around her silhouette and slid off of the bed, peaking around the room as she attempted to familiarize herself with her new surroundings. His room was surprisingly simple for a prince, there wasn’t a whole lot in it, and it was very neat and clean. She pulled on the doors to his wardrobe, examining all his glittering armor and night clothes with great interest, until she stumbled upon some old pictures laying in the bottom of the closet.

“What are these…” She muttered to herself, flipping through the old photographs with a sappy smile on her face. Most of them were of his brother, which might have been weird if they hadn’t been so young in them that they were obviously keepsakes taken by their parents. Tiny Thor was chasing Loki with a snake, tiny Thor was being chased _by_ a snake, and several were of the brothers hugging or posing by fireplaces. They looked so normal…so happy. No matter her feelings toward Loki, it warmed her heart to know that Thor obviously cherished their brotherly bond very deeply, and she was lost in these thoughts when she heard a soft voice ring out from behind her.

“Find anything of interest?”

Emily nearly jumped out of her skin, delicately putting the pictures down and slamming the doors closed. “I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to pry I just—”

Thor laughed, stepping forward slightly and grabbing hold of his comforter, using the fluffy edges to pull her against his body. “You were curious, I know. It’s understandable, I left you in here alone for hours after all with nothing to do.”

Emily puffed her bottom lip out in a playful pout, turning her face from him and smirking at the attentive and love-filled gaze in his big old puppy eyes. “Where were you? I was getting lonely.”

Thor only chuckled deeper and sat his chin promptly atop her head. His hands held her tightly, and he wiggled his thick eyebrows at her. “I wouldn’t worry your pretty little head about where I was. We can talk about that later. Why don’t you come with me?”

Emily raised a dark eyebrow at him, unable to keep the promiscuity off her face. “Oh? And just where are we going?”

Thor winked and shrugged his shoulders, extending his hand for her to take. “Follow me. You’ll see soon enough.” 


	14. A Little Fall of Rain

Thor had stood tall beside his father, head held high, though on the inside he felt as small and insignificant as a stone. Odin’s eye had looked down on him as it always did, omnipresent and ever critical. There was never any pleasing this man, there never had been, and Thor knew that there was no way he could ever convince his father to spare Loki. He had been kind enough to imprison him the first time, upon Frigga’s request...but this time...Loki would be hanged faster than one could say bifrost. Thor had had to choose his words very carefully, avoiding the silent tears slowly rolling down his mother’s cheeks. Frigga was always going to love Loki, he was her baby.

“My son,” Odin began, Thor dropping to a kneeling position immediately upon being addressed. “I know you know of your brother’s whereabouts. Heimdall and I have spoken many times since you left the palace. I know what he has seen.”

Thor kept his head bowed, but he knew what was right in his heart, despite the rigid fear of disobeying his father that had bubbled in his chest. First-Borns were always conditioned to be blindly obedient, to be sheep. Thor was done playing that game. “Then you know that Loki means no harm. My brother is a lot of talk, he always has been, but he knows better than you or I that the only thing in Midgard that exists for him is Lanie. There will be no conquering, no war. He has been there two months and all he has done is love her. Is there really a need to reprimand him for that?”

“I expected better of you. You have always been child who did things right, the child held up to my image. I beg you, do not allow Loki to lead you down a path of darkness. He is not your brother.”

Thor clenched his jaw hard, fighting every urge in his body to rise to his feet. That was unfair, and Odin damn well knew it. “He is more my brother than you are my father. My father, the Odin I remember and respected, had loved us equally. Would you not show me an ounce of compassion if our roles were reversed? If it were me, and not Loki who had fallen off the path of righteousness? He is changing, father. I have seen it.”

“You see what you want to see. You are a foolish, naive boy, you always have been. I had hoped your time on Earth would have taught you better.” Odin bellowed, his aged face reddening as Thor slowly rose to his feet. Odin looked as if he might blow a gasket, and Frigga gently reached out to touch his arm, to calm him, as Thor stepped forward slightly.

“Midgard taught me a world of things, father. Humility, mercy, forgiveness...all things the crown is sorely lacking in. I will not have my brother bound or killed because of your warped sense of what is just. Loki is just as Asgardian as you or I, Asgard is a people, not a place. This is his home, it is time you acted like it.”

“Don’t you dare order me--”

“No! I am the one done being ordered. You raised us both side by side, and if Loki isn’t your son then neither am I. You can have your precious throne.” Thor snarled, tearing out of the room like a whirlwind.

Thor thought back on this moment as he quietly led Emily out of his bedroom and into the castle's main foyer. He was unsure if his father was going to retaliate, or whether it was safe to tell Loki and Lanie to come out of hiding. One thing was certain, however, and that was that Emily was now a part of his family as far as he was concerned, and it was time for him to make that known. If he was going to push his father away for the sake of his brother, he was going to need a little extra TLC from a certain someone...someone he thought would understand his insecurity.

His hand clamped around hers tightly, and his heart beat erratically in his chest as they neared their destination. He didn’t know how she was going to take this…she had made herself clear in the beginning. She wanted a casual relationship. Thor thought that was what he wanted too, at first. It was nice to have someone by his side who just genuinely liked him as a friend, no strings, no jealousy, no drama. She was the most down-to-earth person he had ever met, it was part of what made her so attractive to him. The last thing he wanted to do was make her uncomfortable, but she needed to know how he felt. He was going to get everything he needed to say to people off his chest in one go.

They eventually happened upon two small glass double doors, which opened to a grand balcony overlooking the entire kingdom. Forest and glens could be seen from miles away, a beautiful warm atmosphere encasing everything the light touched. There was a large waterfall off in the distance, and the gentle chirp of birds could be heard from all corners, despite the impending setting of the sun. Asgard truly was the most beautiful place Emily had ever seen.

“This is amazing.” She uttered, mostly to herself, as the couple walked outside. Thor couldn’t contain the happiness that was radiating off him as he watched the wonder in her eyes. He sincerely hoped he wasn’t about to ruin it.

A long silence passed between them as they observed nature, though Emily found it highly unusual for Thor of all people to be this quiet. She tilted her head to the side curiously and gave him a small smile. “Thor, what has gotten into you? What are we doing out here?”

He took a deep breath, a nervous smile breaking across his face as he tried to compose himself. “I must profess something to you...and I am unsure of how you are going to respond.” All the stars in the sky could not have glistened more than her lovely eyes, and he fell for her all over again as he gazed into them for a long moment.

Emily felt like the entire world had just been pulled out from underneath her, a pit of dread settling in her stomach as her mind ran wild with possibilities. It only took one look into his sweet, crystal blue eyes for her to know his confession, but she swallowed hard and asked anyway. She prayed she was wrong. “Profess what, exactly?”

            Thor ran his thumb across Emily’s fingers distractedly while he turned to stare over the glowing city. “I heard you when you confided in me that you weren’t looking for romance, you must believe me when I say that. But, Emily, I am no fool. Things change, people grow, situations take turns for better or worse, and I…I’ve found myself falling in love with you. What that means for us is entirely up to you, but I could not continue on this path with you without making my feelings known. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us.” His eyes misted slightly as he watched the color literally drain from her face, and he was almost certain he had made a mistake. Were it the case, so be it. She deserved to know. 

Emily felt as if all the oxygen had just been sucked from her lungs, and she fought the urge to vomit. She could see the tears shining behind those delicate puppy eyes, and she couldn’t take it any longer, averting her gaze and biting her lip hard. “Thor, I...I don’t know what to say.” She didn’t want to hurt him, she was at a loss for words.

Thor’s face froze as he felt his soul leave his body. He was bearing his heart to her and she looked ready to die. He knew better, but there was a desperation welling inside of him that he couldn’t put his finger on. “Say that you love me, say that we can try, say anything.” When he leaned in to take her lips within his own, Emily flinched out of his reach, and he knew in that moment that he had his answer. It hurt, but it didn’t truly matter to him if her answer was no. He just needed her to hear it. He set his jaw rigidly, in an attempt at holding in his emotions as he let out a small sigh. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, forgive me.”

“H-How could you...why...Thor, I don’t understand. You and Loki are...you’re like brothers to me. I thought you understood that. I never wanted this, I never wanted to hurt you. I care about you. But I never meant for it to go this far...I can’t be a part of this anymore. I’m sorry.” Tears rolled down her cheeks before she could stop them, backing away from him as her heart broke into a million pieces. Why did he have to ruin it? How could someone like that love someone like her? It didn’t make sense.

Thor didn’t understand how to make her see what she meant to him, that she was his light. He didn’t fuck when they slept together, not anymore…he made love to her. He wasn’t sure when exactly his heart and mind had made that transition, but it was painfully clear that Emily had not gotten the memo. “Emily...please.” His voice cracked, and he had to bite his tongue hard to remain stoic. “You have every right to be upset, I’m the one that broke the rules we set with each other. But please, don’t end it. Even if you cannot love me, don’t go. I couldn’t take it.”

Emily wiped a few stray tears from her face, taking his head into her hands delicately. She ebbed a tear off his cheek with the back of her hand and forced him to look at her. “Thor, look at me. You are amazing. You are a God, you’re strong and beautiful and so kind, and sincere. I have never met a better person in all my life, believe me. But I am not the kind of girl you seem to think that I am. I’m damaged goods, Thor, I’m broken. I promise you, you do not want me. I am not capable of being what you deserve, I never will be.”

Thor’s eyes went wide at the horrible confession and his brow furrowed in a mixture of confusion and offense. He shook his head furiously. “Is that what you think? That is what this is about? Worthiness? Emily, love is not about worth. Love is about trust and hope and joy, finding those things inside of another being. It is about finding a home in someone else’s heart. I don’t ever want you to believe yourself to be undeserving because I am a God. You are more than what I could have hoped for.” He gingerly reached to thread his fingers into her hair, slightly encouraged when she didn’t move out of his reach. Thor held his breath like her words were his life line, anxious to hear her verdict.

Emily wanted to curl up and die. His words were sweeter and kinder than she would ever deserve, and it wounded every inch of her soul. Here he was, her favorite person in all the realms, crying at her feet, and yet she couldn’t make herself do it. The idea of committing to a man she’d known a mere matter of months made her heart constrict with fear, and Asgard, her powers, his love, it was all suffocating her. It was too much too fast, she didn’t have enough time to cope. Her hand caressed his cheek very softly and she leaned in to press a bittersweet kiss to the God’s forehead. “I’m so sorry.” And with that, she turned away from him. She didn’t know where she was going, but her legs were moving before her mind even had the chance to register, leaving him alone as small pelts of rain began to bounce sporadically on the cold tile of the balcony floor.  

Thor leaned back as a few raindrops hit his already wet face, a shattered expression written all over him. Why? Was he not what she wanted? In his mind, Emily was everything he could have asked for. She was so generous and hardworking, and she didn’t yell at him or make demands of him the way Jane had. He wanted to give that back to her, to be what she needed. He wanted to protect her, nurture her…he wanted what Loki had. Thor dropped down on his knees for what seemed like forever as the rain wet his body, hoping she would come back, but knowing she never would.


	15. Beneath a Moonless Sky

Back inside, Loki was holding Lanie against his body with crushing force, his lungs fighting to retain oxygen as their heated make-out session intensified. Her body felt like heaven against his own, as if she had been born to fit around his waist, and heat was spreading throughout the God quickly...he wanted her. An ache was growing between his legs, and he allowed his hands to trail down her body as he kissed all down her jaw sweetly, lovingly. He was being surprisingly gentle with her, and it was hard for Lanie to picture him as the man from her memories, the man who had killed all those people. He touched her like she was something precious, something to be protected. He loved her. 

Lanie’s fantasy was interrupted as she felt his nimble fingers tug at the waist of her jeans, realizing that there was something growing near her rear that had not been there before. Her cheeks darkened instantly, reaching to delicately push his fingers away as she caressed the side of his face in apology. He noticed the way her body trembled, and he cocked his head to the side with a smoldering mix of curiosity and concern burning behind his eyes. 

“Is this not what you want?”

Lanie shook her head quickly. “No, it’s not that at all. It’s just that...well, I’m nervous.” 

Loki laughed at the very thought, rolling them onto their sides, legs tangled together as he propped himself up on his elbow to look at her. His free hand tangled in her hair and he shot her a lopsided smile. “I find that hard to believe, what have you to be nervous about? You’re beautiful. Do not be self-conscious. Or is it because I am of Asgard? I am not going to hurt you, never you.”

Lanie rolled her eyes, frustrated that he wasn’t grasping what she was trying to say and she took his face within both of her hands. “Loki, I’m not afraid of you. I trust you. But I’m  _ nervous. _ ” She rolled the word off her tongue slowly, not breaking eye contact until she was sure she saw both understanding and pure shock wash over his features. 

“ _ Oh. _ ” 

Lanie nodded slowly, the flush on her cheeks burning hot under her skin, half afraid he wouldn’t want to try anymore after this. It was embarrassing to be twenty-one-years-old and a complete virgin, especially when her best friend was...well...Emily. Her friend had always been a bit promiscuous, but Lanie...Lanie was sexually anorexic.

Loki inched closer to her, as if he was going to kiss her, but his deep sapphire eyes suddenly appeared tortured, and begged for her consent. His sudden vulnerability caught her off guard, softening her own expression in an attempt to reassure him. “Are you certain, then, that you want a monster to marr the parts of you that remain pure?”

Lanie’s eyebrows furrowed, offended for him that he’d speak of himself that way. The man before her was no monster, no one could ever convince her of that. The monster he spoke of was rage, it was an emotion he acted on after years of internalizing abuse. Her Loki was so much more than that. The kiss she planted on his lips was soft as a ghost and she squeezed his hand hard. “Don’t. I want to belong to you in every way, forever.”

The surprise in his eyes was evident, but not vocalized, there was no need. A sudden electricity passed through them, and the happy grin that shot across his face was enough to stop her heart in its tracks. He grabbed her hand and tugged her up off the bed and to her feet. “Come with me, then.” 

Lanie couldn’t help the bright curiosity that lit up her face, though Loki only grinned in response, pressing a long finger to his lips as he did so. He wasn’t telling her a thing, it was to be a surprise. They walked beside one another for a long while in a comfortable silence, swinging their interlaced hands between the two of them as Lanie admired her surroundings. The palace seemed even more beautiful at night. A sleepy tranquility had settled into the air, and as she gazed at the shimmering walls and picturesque etchings amid ancient furniture she marveled at how perfectly at ease she felt by Loki’s side. She wanted to ask him about New York, she wanted to understand what had made him do such terrible things, when his heart was silently speaking to her on an intimate, tender frequency. She thought better of it as they walked out into what appeared to be a small garden, not wanting to ruin the mood quite yet. It was an inquiry better saved for a different day.

“Wow…” She breathed, brown eyes widening at the sight of dark cascading willow trees and forlorn ghostly snowdrops dangling delicately in tufts of forest green grass. A nightingale's song whispered through the breeze, and everything seemed to cast a listless glow despite the eerie absence of moonlight. It was strikingly beautiful...haunting, even. She could feel his eyes on her as she drank in the scenery, a small and lovingly smile waiting patiently for her to look at him. “Loki…”

He moved to stand behind her, arms snaking around her waist as he nuzzled his face into her hair. He inhaled deeply, taking in every precious moment with her that he could as he pondered his words carefully. “My mother taught me everything I know beneath these stars. It was the only place she and I could be alone, where I was safe from Thor’s attention-seeking and father’s disapproval. It’s the only place in this entire realm that I can truly say is mine own. It is mothers well-kept secret.” 

“It’s gorgeous, Loki.” Lanie’s eyes were lost deeply in the pitch blackness of the night sky, counting the few stars that littered the endless stretch of space above them. His arms tightened around her, matching her gaze as he followed into the abyssal darkness. 

“What do you search for, Fair One?”

She hummed in quiet happiness. “There is no moon out. It’s curious.” 

A chuckle graced the god’s lips, spinning her around in his arms so she faced him, his fingers tugging at her shirt in need. “I do not require moonlight for what shall transpire here. Your love of me is light enough to guide my way.” His words were sweet, but his tone was dripping with a lust that darkened her cheeks at an instant. His eyes were undressing her, though they pleaded for permission as he very gently captured her lips. He held still as a statue, waiting for her to give the okay with her body language, until she melted against him like she was built for him and him alone. Perhaps she was, he thought.

Their bodies exploded in unison with one another, armor clattering to the ground as Loki fought to rid himself of his clothing. Lanie let him, having absolutely no idea how to work the layers of protection that encased his body, and resigned herself to pulling her own shirt off over her head. Loki kicked his boots off and growled a “no”, wanting to undress her himself. This was her first time being intimate with anyone, he wanted to take control for her, to give her all the pleasure she could stand. It needed to be special. She laughed at his possessiveness, laying down for him in a soft patch of grass, in wait. When he was finally out of that confounded armor, he dropped to his knees, climbing on top of her and working to slowly unbutton her blouse. He nipped at her neck tenderly with the soft pop of each button, Lanie fighting for breath as her entire body shivered. 

His wet mouth peppered kissed all down her body until her torso was bare, Loki’s hands softly pushing her shirt off her shoulders and unhooking her bra with ease. Her jeans came next, sliding off with one swift motion as his mouth latched onto one of her nipples. Lanie gasped involuntarily, shocked at the sheer delicateness of his touch. His hands felt light as a feather, though they explored her body with depth and admiration. Loki touched her like his life depended on it, as if knowing her every crevasse was his only source of oxygen. She mewled softly, rocking against his touch as he ripped her underwear off and buried his face into her sensitive flesh. 

“Loki.” Lanie moaned softly, her fingers threading into his hair as she fought the tremble of her own body. She had never felt anything like this before, his smirk against her sex only furthering her arousal. She knew he liked it when she said his name, the way it dripped from her lips like an erotic pet name. His tongue curled into her, expertly exploring her tightness, fingers    
massaging what his mouth could not manage, and reveling in the sounds of her pleasure. 

Loki needed her to know that he loved her. He needed to show her. His lean, muscular arms cradling her against him as he allowed his face to become one with her sex. He ate like a king, like he would be the only man ever allowed to enter her like this, to worship her like this. He prayed that that would be the case, a hot possessiveness bubbling in his chest at the very thought of sharing her with another man. No one else was worthy. Lanie was  _ his  _ Midgardian. If he had his way, she’d belong to him in every physical way possible. He could feel her legs beginning to tremble, and he pulled back, eyes full of affection as he gazed at her naked body.

“Not quite yet, love. Allow me to show you the best part.” He slid back up her body, though she tried to grab for his erection. 

“Let me--” 

He shushed her, shaking his head no and capturing her lips roughly. “Not tonight, angel. Tonight is about you.” Loki attempted to distract her, caressing her face tenderly and continuing to scorch her bruised lips with kisses. “You taste amazing.” He whispered, sliding into her with force and halting his movements entirely. Lanie gasped at the fullness, wanting to cry out at the sharp pain that just radiated through her body. She fought it, but Loki knew, and he brushed a few stray tears away with the back of his hand. “You’re alright, breathe.” 

Lanie nodded, taking a deep breath and gazing into those beautiful dark blue eyes. He looked so concerned, and heart fluttered erratically in her chest. Oh she was in trouble...two months and he had her right where he wanted her, she was more in love with him than she knew how to cope with. It honestly hurt a little, and she nuzzled affectionately into his touch. “I’m so thankful that I found you.” 

It was a mere whisper, but it touched Loki more than he was prepared for. He didn’t know what to say, she was the most pure human being he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing, and it upset him that he could have killed her that day in New York. He couldn’t imagine his life without her anymore, and peels of regret radiated through his body. He leaned his forehead against her own, a sad smile gracing his features. “I do not deserve your loyalty.” 

“Maybe not,” She admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. “But you have all of it.” 

He didn’t know how to respond to that, choosing to simply show her his gratitude through actions and not words. He rolled his hips into her slowly, being as gentle as was possible, knowing that she was still in pain. Lanie didn’t show it, biting her tongue in show of her fealty to him. She wanted him to love her this way, to have his way with her. “Mm, we don’t--we don’t have a condom.”    

Loki shook his head wildly, continuing his slow meticulous thrusts as his mouth trailed all over the rest of her body. He kissed and nipped every bare inch of her, marking his territory with hickies as he did so. All of Asgard would know who she belonged to by the end of the evening, that was for certain. “I have no need of one.”

Lanie opened her eyes wide in surprise, both at his comment and at the groan of pleasure now ripping threw her body as he rammed into a certain spot in her body that not even  _ she  _ had found before. “W-What? What if--”

Loki shut that down quickly, interrupting her with his tongue as it collided with her own. There was no fight for dominance to be had, she submitted to him willinging, and his tongue mingled with her own as if caught in dance. It was passionate, consuming. Lanie could hardly breathe. “That does not concern me. You are mine. You are taken care of.” Loki didn’t even believe his own words as they came from his mouth, but he didn’t want to stop, there was no going back now. His mind was fixated only on Lanie; on how she felt beneath him, how she tasted, the way he felt inside of her. He knew it was irrational, that any child born of them would be in as much danger as he’d inadvertently put her in. And yet, there was a part of him at craved it in a way he couldn’t articulate. It didn’t matter, his choice was made, he could feel her coming undone around him. “L-Lanie!”

Lanie couldn’t hold it any longer, a thick heat crawling through her loins as her legs began to tremble once more. She climaxed hard around him, her walls clamping down hard as Loki let out a strangled cry. He came inside of her forcefully, biting down on her neck in an attempt at holding back the pleasure filled scream breaking from his chest. It had been so long...too long. “I..that was…” 

Loki chuckled at her, collapsing into the grass and pulling her to his side. “Did you enjoy it? Was that alright?” 

Lanie didn’t even know how to explain to him how amazing he had felt, how blown her mind was by all that had just transpired. Her heart felt like it was about to explode inside her chest. She wanted nothing more than to be entirely consumed by him, to be one with him forever. “I love you.” Was all she could manage, and he laughed once more, pressing a delicate kiss to the center of her forehead.

“And I you.”  


	16. Avengers Assemble

The light was blinding that morning, as Thor sat glumly at the mead hall in the castle’s main chamber. He had searched for Emily all night long, to no avail, and assumed by breakfast that Heimdall must have taken her home. His heart was aching, though he’d never show it as he knocked back mead horn after mead horn with his best friends--the warriors three. 

Fandral had been looking on him a long while, worried, though he dare not question his friend’s mood. Thor was not a pleasant man when upset, and both Hogun and Volstagg had been exchanging frightened looks with the other Asgardian all morning. They hadn’t seen Thor this drunk since the night Loki had attempted suicide off the side of the Bifrost. Fandral cleared his throat loudly, sitting his mead down and glancing at Thor from the corner of his eyes. He dare not look on him directly. “Thor, my friend, maybe we should call it a morning? We have duties to attend, and I am least of all eager to anger the Allfather.” 

Thor snorted, not even bothering to glance up as he buried his entire face into his alcohol. “Do not fear my father. Come, drink your sorrows away with me Fandral, I will not allow you any punishment.” 

Fandral didn’t look so sure, but Hogun and Volstagg were looking on him if to say “you drink right now before you get us all banished” and ruefully tilted his head back to drown himself in his friend’s misery. He didn’t know what Loki had done this time, but he sincerely hoped the little shit paid for every ounce of damage Thor was inflicting on their livers.

Little did Fandral know, of course, it wasn’t Loki who had broken Thor down beyond the scope of reason. Not this time. Emily’s eyes fluttered open slowly, the sheer aggressiveness of Asgard’s sun pissing her off as she attempted to block it out with the dark green pillow she’d been sleeping on. Upon this realization, she sat up suddenly, glancing around the room she’d stumbled into the previous night. Everything was colored a dark, hunter green, or a shimmery gold, and a pit of dread knotted in her stomach as she realized whose room it was that she was intruding on. Loki’s room was decorated with small keepsakes, and a lot of items were scattered about the room that appeared more than a little witchcrafty, and she was  _ not  _ touching any of that. She’d had enough mishaps with Asgardian magic for one lifetime. She flopped back down, pulling his black comforter over her head and groaning softly. She didn’t know where Loki and Lanie had been all night, but she was glad they hadn’t come back. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this. 

_ He hates me, Loki _ . She thought to herself, chest constricting in her chest as she thought about the look that had been in his eyes when she’d left. He had never looked so broken, so insecure. What had she done to him?  _ This wasn’t your fault,  _ she reminded herself,  _ he’s the one that caught feelings. He broke the rules.  _ But that wasn’t entirely the issue, was it? She had caught feelings too, if only slightly, but she’d never be able to allow herself his company. Not in that way. He was too good for her; she was every bit the failure Tyler...her ex...had thought her to be. 

The very memory of Tyler made her stomach lurch, and she fought the urge to violently vomit in Loki’s bed. She burst into loud, gross sobs, gripping Loki’s sheets hard in an attempt at controlling herself. She couldn’t. Her stomach ached, her heart was broken, and the tears stung her eyes as she burrowed herself deeper and deeper into the bedding. It was then that there was a very gentle knock at the door, and her heart nearly leapt from her chest at the sound of a female voice she didn’t recognize. 

“Loki, sweetie? Are you home? Is that you?”

Meanwhile, a very angry Nick Fury was pacing back and forth in the expansive bottom foyer of Avengers Tower. All of the Avengers, minus Thor, had been assembled and called to meet, sitting uncomfortably in a circle on one of Stark’s long sectional couches. Tony was avoiding eye-contact with the director, who he was still more than pissed off at, and everyone else stared blankly and awkwardly off into the distance. No one wanted to be there. It was Natasha who broke the silence several minutes into the meeting, unable to stand the anxious tension building in the room. 

“Not to be rude, Nick, but did you call us all out here for a reason, or are we here to admire the new furniture?” 

Fury’s expression darkened, but he continued his pace as he chewed on his thoughts for a moment longer. He had been sitting on some heavy suspicions for a few months now, and he had held off calling for any official business until he was sure of himself. But now, now that he had been handed a report from SHIELD, who he’d had trailing Thor since the night of the car accident, he knew with absolute certainty that they had been betrayed...and by more than one Avenger. He narrowed his eye at Tony, who he addressed with such coldness that even Natasha looked away. “Would you care to explain why we are here, Stark? Or are you going to make  _ me _ do it?”

Tony didn’t have to think very hard to guess what his “boss” was referring to, and the nasty scowl that painted his expression only deepened. “That depends, Director. Are you prepared for all your dirty laundry to come toppling out with mine? Because I have plenty.”

A bolt of electricity seemed to shoot through the two of them, the intensity suffocating every other person unfortunate enough to be trapped with them.It was Bruce who nervously cleared his throat, looking frantically between the men with a terribly concerned gaze. “Uh...guys? Do you mind letting us in on what’s going on here or…”

Director Fury silenced Dr. Banner with a vicious stare, though his words remained directed at Tony. “I’ve had Agent Hill following Thor for months on his little search for his brother, who broke out of his containment facility in Asgard. Come to find out, not only has Thor  _ and  _ Stark’s little intern been housing and protecting Loki since his untimely return to Earth, but Loki has been in and out of Stark Tower more times in the last two months for it to be a coincidence. He isn’t just breaking in, is he Tony? You’ve been seeing him. You have two seconds to explain yourself to your teammates before we throw your miserable behind out in the streets.”

Tony stood abruptly, a forced and malicious smile tearing at his features. He took a long sip from the beer in his hand before proceeding, and he gestured to all of his friends with a grand wave of his hand. “First of all, this is  _ my _ tower. If anyone is being thrown out of here it is your sorry lying ass. Tell them, Nick, just what exactly you did to everyone in the city, hmm? Everyone including  _ me _ .” He shouted, pulling the blueprints for the machine out of his coat pocket and thrusting them in Bruce’s direction. 

Everyone was quiet as the other scientist poured over the schematics, Bruce shaking his head wildly in disbelief. He couldn’t comprehend what kind of person would legitimately do this to other human beings, and for what awful purposes? “This is...this looks like a NMI...Tony, these are very illegal.” 

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and he rose an eyebrow at Bruce. “It’s a what?”

“NMI,  Norepinephrine Memory Inhibitor. It’s a mechanical device that manipulates the chemical in your brain that stores and files specific memories. It can be used to erase memories, alter them, or create new ones all together. It’s very experimental, unethical tech. Why would you build something like this, Tony? That’s not like you.”

Tony snarled in Fury’s direction. “Why don’t you ask him? He lied to me about what I was creating and when I caught wind of it he erased my memory too. You want to know why Rock of Ages was sneaking in here at all hours of the night? It’s because he was freeing me from what SHIELD did to my mind. Believe it or not, the kid has been on his best behavior.”

That information settled into the air with an edge of discomfort, and the other Avengers all exchanged wary glances. Fury’s face had gone a dark red, and his voice was trembling with barely controlled rage when he spoke. “And what, you suddenly trust the enemy enough to believe whatever he’s putting in your head? He murdered our people, he killed Phil--”

Tony put his hand up to silence the other man, boiling rage consuming him entirely as he interrupted. “Phil is alive and well and you know it! He’s been working in my building, did you really think that was a well-kept secret? Or are you that out of the loop these days, “ _ Director” _ ? I for one think you’re getting a little old.” He spat, body trembling as Natasha stood to put a calming hand on his shoulder.

“Tony.”

Steve made eye contact with Natasha, also rising from his seat to put a wedge between his friends. Shouting themselves in circles was going to get them nowhere, and Tony had a bad habit of lashing out like a child when he felt threatened. Steve knew that from experience. “Tony, you know as good as anyone that I will not stand for SHIELD abusing their power. I’ve fought it before, and I’ll fight it again, if that is truly what is going on here. But that isn’t the issue at hand right now, okay? We can tackle that after we figure out what to do about Loki, you know he can’t stay here.”

Tony took a deep breath, though the deep betrayal swirling in this chocolate brown orbs of his only worsened as he shrugged his shoulders at Steve in defeat. “You aren’t even listening, none of you are. Loki isn’t the problem, Loki came to warn me. Screw whatever he’s done in the past, he has done more for this planet in the last two months than SHIELD has ever done. It’s a corrupt, self-serving--”

“Watch your tone, Tony. When Peggy and your father founded SHIELD--” 

“You know what, no. I’m done, I’m not having this conversation with you, Rogers. If you don’t want to listen to me, fine, but I won’t sit here and listen to you tell me all the good my father has done for the world, like I wasn’t around to see that it was all a bunch of bullshit. But have it your way, let’s hear what Patches over here has got to say.” Tony barked, flopping back down on the couch apathetically and folding his arms across his chest. Fury elected to ignore that last quip, and gritted his teeth as he tried to get his mind back on track.

“Regardless of SHIELD’s indiscretions, both Stark and Thor have allowed an intergalactic terrorist to reside on Earth for an inexcusable amount of time. I don’t care if he makes Tony believe he’s Mother fucking Teresa, the people that died in the Battle of New York will  _ not  _ be treated as if they do not matter. Justice is coming for Loki. If the Asgardian’s will not take his punishment seriously, then fine. We will bring him in and take care of it ourselves. Those were always the terms when we let Asgard have him back, we made ourselves very clear.”

“The Director is right. I’m sorry, Tony. Hell, I’m surprised you don’t agree too. Out of all of us, you are the one Loki very nearly succeeded in killing.” This was the first Clint had spoken, and Tony refused to look at him, stewing in an angry silence as the other Avenger’s slowly nodded in agreement with Barton. Tony was outnumbered five to one, though Bruce still looked mildly disturbed. The pair shot each other knowing glances, and Tony knew Dr. Banner would hang around after everyone left. Bruce agreed with Tony much more than he was letting on.

“I have a plan, if you’ll hear it.” Fury made eye contact with Tony as he said this, as if trying to coax him into agreement. Tony refused to speak, and Nick sighed heavily, turning his gaze to his other companions. “According to Agent Hill’s reports, a man by the name of Miles Declan was murdered at a bar not far from Stark’s intern’s apartment. Hill saw the entire thing, Loki snapped that man’s neck like a chopstick, like it was nothing. When sirens were audible outside the establishment, the entire entourage Loki had with him--Thor included, were sucked back up to Asgard. As far as we know, they’re still there. They have human women with them, they are sure to come back. We need to be ready for them when they do.”

Steve shook his head. “We can’t just ambush them. Thor is going to be protective of his brother at this point, he will retaliate. I don’t think we can take both god’s at the same time.” 

“We don’t have to. Thor has become enamored with Emily Ramsay, she’s a pretty big deal in the culinary world thanks to her world-famous father, but she has gone off the grid recently. Agent Hill isn’t entirely certain what she is...inhuman, mutant, experiment gone wrong, but we are led to believe that her laying low is due to some superhuman abilities she is experiencing. So, what I propose is simple. One of you is going to convince Thor that the best way for her to hone her abilities is to join the Avengers. When he agrees, you will bring the two of them back here to “talk it over” and that ought to buy us enough time to get our hands on the little intern. Loki would die before he let us hurt her, he’ll give himself up willingly.”

This caught Tony’s attention immediately and he shot off of the couch like a tornado. Lanie might have been just his cute little assistant that he talked science with and asked for coffee from, but she was one of his own and an innocent young woman. What kind of so-called Avengers kidnapped civilians? “You will not touch my--”

Fury cut him off, backing him against the sofa’s dark brown leather has he stalked forward. “You know what, Tony? Thank you for volunteering.”

  



	17. Avengers Assemble Pt. II

Loki had been looking on Lanie for a long while. He wondered how the sun had not yet woken her, as they lay there nestled in the soft, lush grass. Her head lay on his chest, lulled by the steady beat of his heart, and he cradled her against him gently. He didn’t wish to wake her, not when she looked so peaceful in his arms, as if he made her feel safe. Loki needed that to be true, to feel like he was a protector for once, but he also needed her to be awake. They had much to talk about and consider, and they could not remain naked in the garden forever. He kissed her softly, fingers in her hair as her eyes began to flutter open. She smiled into the kiss, propping herself up to look at him and rubbing some sleep from her eyes. 

“Good morning, Loki.” 

“You are beautiful when you sleep.” 

Lanie blushed, hiding her face from him as he let out a small chuckle. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her as she rolled out of his embrace and sat up, hair resting delicately at her breasts in dark brown ringlets. She should have been a Goddess. Lanie could feel his eyes on her as she dressed herself, and her face only darkened as she imagined what was going on in his head. She peaked a glance at his long, lethe body, though she hummed in disappointment at the realization that he too was redressing. Loki laughed.

“Do not fret, Fair One. I suspect you will be seeing much more of my body as time goes on.” He teased, a light-hearted mischief dancing in those gorgeous blue eyes. She briefly wondered if that was how Loki had been before, back when his mischievous nature had yet been twisted into something malicious. Had he been this warm? Loki extended his hand for her to take, gesturing toward a small bench at a far corner of the garden. 

“Come, sit with me. We need to talk.” 

‘We need to talk’ was never a happy phrase exchanged between lovers where Lanie came from, and a pang of fear immediately shot through her, but she nodded. Their fingers threaded together as naturally as breathing and he pulled her to his side. His fingers soothed her anxiety as they squeezed her own, he didn’t appear to be breaking up with her.

“Tell me, Alaine. What do you think I came to your realm to accomplish?”

Lanie tilted her head to the side, searching his eyes for a moment before responding. She hadn’t given it much thought, she had been more concerned about figuring out why he had done what he’d done in the past. She shrugged. “If I’m being honest, Loki, I thought you came to Earth to antagonize your brother. When we met he seemed to be trailing you, and he was not at all happy. When you stayed, well...part of me remember you mentioning a desire to rule the realm...but most of me wished…” She trailed off, not quite confident enough to finish her sentence, though she didn’t have to. A very small smile curled at the corner of his lips.

“That I stayed for you? That, darling, is precisely why we need to talk. I came to Earth to reclaim it, yes, but at this point the only thing holding me there is you. You need to understand what that means.” 

Lanie’s expression brightened at his words, barely recognizing the slight discomfort and fear that was slowly building in Loki’s own. “It means that you love me...right?” Her question was an insecure one, and he brought her hand to his face to press tender kisses into her palm. 

“I do love you, never doubt that, but it is a little more complicated than that. If you truly wish to commit to this life--a life spent with me, you need to be aware of the consequences. It is not an easy road I walk. There is a reason I walk it alone.” 

Loki was beginning to frighten her, and she shook her head at him. She couldn’t wrap her mind around why he was telling her all this now, she was obviously ready and willing to commit to him, she didn’t care what he’d done in the past. What more could there possibly be to it?

“Loki, please. What is troubling you?”

Back inside the palace, Emily was sitting up in Loki’s bed in a state of shock. It had been Frigga, who had knocked, and was now standing before her. The queen had a subtle beauty, and delicate, thoughtful eyes. Her honey colored hair was braided to the side, and her long blue dress accentuated her grace. Emily didn’t have to ask, she could tell who she was. She scrambled from the bed, kneeling before Frigga with her head down. 

“I beg your pardon, your majesty. I didn't mean to impose, I got lost...if I had known this was the prince’s room--”

Frigga held a hand up to silence her, and Emily’s heart beat wildly in her ears. This was all very new to her, and no one she trusted was there to tell her what was appropriate by Asgardian customs. She didn’t want to disrespect Thor’s mother, just to add to a laundry list of wrongs she’d seemed to have done by him. The thought made her scowl. 

“Please, rise. I did not come here to punish, I am concerned. Who are you? You dress of this realm, yet I know you are not any of mine nor the lady Sif’s handmaidens. What are you doing in here? Why do you weep?” 

She asked a lot of questions, but her tone was never accusatory, and Emily visibly relaxed as she stood. “Forgive me. I am not Asgardian, I was brought here in the company of your son, Thor. He and I...well, we got into a bit of an argument last night and I ran off. Wound up here.” 

Frigga rose an eyebrow in shock. This was not the first time her son had brought a Midgardian flame of his into the palace, and she doubted it would be the last, but this  _ was  _ the first time she had ever found one in her youngest’s bed. “Have you lain with Loki? Please be honest with me, Thor will be devastated if you retaliated this way, and it will need to be approached delicately.” 

The look of pure disgust that filled Emily’s expression amused Frigga far more than she’d dare admit to. Emily’s entire face contorted into pure horror, and she shook her head hard. “I would never touch Loki! I didn’t lie, I swear I stumbled in here by accident. Loki has his own girlfriend to worry about, we aren’t interested in each other.” She decided to leave out the part where the thought of touching his greasy, weasley body made bile rise up the back of her throat. She was talking to the man’s mother, after all. 

“I...see. Well, if you are in the company of my eldest then I suppose I should inform you that he is highly inebriated at the moment. You might ask Heimdall to take you home.” 

Emily nodded, swallowing hard as she bit back another bout of tears. She was going to shoot herself before she wept in front of the Queen of Asgard. Frigga’s brow furrowed as she drank in the Midgardian’s demeanour. It troubled her, Thor usually showed a lady an excellent time, and it wasn’t often that human women didn’t like visiting the palace. This was uncharacteristic of Thor. 

“Are you going to be alright? Do you wish to talk about it? I sincerely hope my son did not forget his manners, has he brought you harm?”

_ Fuck.  _ She was going to make this hard, wasn’t she? Emily wasn’t sure she could respond without her voice cracking, and as much as she loathed herself for it, the more she stood there the more her body shook. She couldn’t hold it anymore. Frigga’s kindness had overwhelmed her. “H-He told me he was in love with me.”

In the garden, Loki was attempting to explain himself. There had been a lot on his mind, and he wasn’t the best at expressing emotion. It made him severely uncomfortable. He looked at their interlaced fingers as he spoke, unwilling to meet her eyes. “The throne, of either realm, is never what I truly wanted. I tried to tell Thor, I tried to explain what I was attempting to accomplish when I fought to destroy my birthplace, but he didn’t want to hear me. I suppose more importantly,  _ Odin  _ didn’t want to hear me. I was hurt. I was desperate. I tried to...end it, if you will, after everything I did resulted in failure. It appears, however, that even in self murder I am a failure.” 

Lanie opened her mouth to respond, horrified and deeply saddened for him, but he shook his head at her. “Let me finish. When one falls off the bifrost, into the darkness and the cold of space, you would think you’d be met with a swift and merciful death. The truth, however, is far more terrifying. Had I fallen while the bridge was in use I may have wound up on some random planet, if I had to guess, but instead I lingered in this thick, black nothingness for quite some time. I cannot be for certain how long I was like that, but when someone finally happened along and found me...let’s just say I wish I had been left there to rot. There is a Dark Lord, a Titan who rules an expansive portion of this universe...someone who should not be meddled with. When he found me, slowly suffocating and near death, he saved my life. But that debt came with a price, and a deal was struck.” 

“Thanos. That is his name. He was in search of something called the Tesseract, and he knew that I knew where it was and how to use it. He lent me an army and a sceptre, and sent me to Earth to take what he thought was rightfully his. And...per usual, thanks to my brother and his little friends, I failed. The Tesseract sits in Asgard’s vault collecting dust, the humans have the sceptre, and I...well, I’m dead the moment Thanos gets his hands on me. When I came back to Earth, I thought perhaps I could start over, reclaim the Sceptre, take the Tesseract back from Asgard when I was powerful enough...but then I met you and suddenly there was no longer a point. I’ve realized now that Thanos is going to kill me whether I get the stones back or not. I might as well spend what time I have left doing something worthwhile.” He said quietly, pausing for a moment to allow all of that to sink in.

Lanie’s eyes filled with tears, clasping a hand over her mouth as she digested his words. Everything made perfect sense now. “There has to be a way to protect you, there--” There was a hysteria rising in her voice and Loki pulled her into his lap. He shushed her, resting his chin atop her head. 

“I didn’t tell you this to frighten you, Fair One. I just need you to know that I have very powerful enemies, and as long as you are with me you are not safe. I can protect you from a great deal, but I cannot protect you from Thanos. If you stay with me, if we are to have any semblance of a life together, it will have to be a life on the run. Always. Do you think you can handle that?”

Lanie clung to Loki, hands tugging at his armor like a child tears at a blanket. Her throat felt like it was going to close on her, and she could feel a panic attack coming on. She couldn’t lose him, not now. He had let her fall in love with him, he had let her get attached, and it was  _ now  _ that he decided to tell her his days were potentially numbered? “I can’t live without you. I won’t. Anywhere you run I will run beside you. You needn’t worry about that. I choose to love you, and I choose this life.” 

Loki kissed her hard, nibbling on her bottom lip as he caressed her face. “I’ll keep myself alive for you. I’ve proven pretty good at it so far, right?” His eyes danced with a happy playfulness, and she could tell he was trying to lighten the mood. She nuzzled into his touch, bruising his lips with the force behind her kisses. There was a deep need for closeness between them, and neither wanted the moment to end. 

“The others will be looking for us.” She finally sighed, pulling away slightly and smirking at the whine he let out. 

“Let them look. What care have we?” He leaned in and kissed her neck tenderly, though he made a point to mark her with a sizable hickey. Lanie burst into a fit of giggles. 

“Well they’re certainly going to look at  _ that _ , thanks.” 

Loki chuckled and let out a small sigh, pushing her gently from his lap so he could stand. He helped her to her feet and began reluctantly leading her back to the palace. 

Frigga was now sitting on the bed, holding Emily in her arms, and Heimdall was waiting patiently in the doorway. Emily had confessed more to the queen than she’d told anyone but Lanie in a  _ long  _ time. She had opened up about Tyler, about the physical and emotional torment he had put her through for two long years. She told her about the...miscarriage. All things she could never tell Thor. She wasn’t sure she could ever face him again, and she was so thankful that Frigga had gone and gotten Heimdall for her. Frigga understood, Frigga knew that none of this was her fault. She was the kindest person Emily had met in many years. 

Heimdall watched her quietly while she wept, large golden eyes full of sympathy as he had listened to her recount horrible stories, where someone Emily had thought loved her had nearly beaten her and her unborn child to death. It made him physically sick. He wanted to protect her, and his voice was like a firm hug as it rang softly in the dark room. “Would you like to go home, milady? I will take you anywhere you wish to go. Thor doesn’t have to know.” 

Emily nodded, admiring his muscular form as she wiped hot tears from her cheeks and smiled gratefully at Frigga. “Thank you both so much for not hating me.” It was a whimper, and Frigga kissed her temple in support. 

“You are more than what this man has made you. I would like to see you try to grow together, but you owe my son nothing. It is your choice if you wish to reach out to him, and when. You should go home and get some rest.” 

Heimdall nodded in agreement, walking forward slightly and kneeling to her bedside, extending his arm for her to take. “Take your time. Heal. And if you ever feel alone, just know that I am always watching. You need only call my name.” 

Emily blushed at him, his sweetness melting her insides as she took him by the hand. “That...that means a lot to me. Will you take me home now?” 

Heimdall kissed the back of her hand respectfully, and pulled her to her feet. “Your wish is my command.” 


	18. New Beginnings

Director Fury sat at a long mahogany desk with his hands behind his head and his feet propped up on the table. Anne Stark sat in the chair adjacent from him, her lips formed into a tight line as she rummaged around in some highly classified SHIELD files. She bit her lip hard.

“Are you sure about this, Nick? This school teacher doesn’t seem very stable. We need her alive if we are going to bait Thor into coming for her rescue.”

Fury shrugged, not at all concerned as he lounged back with a content sigh, pleased with his work. They had been waiting three long weeks to set their plan into action, and since it appeared that Thor and Loki were not coming back to Midgard anytime soon, the plan had been slightly altered. The Avengers  _ needed  _ to get ahold of Thor, and if they could draw Thor out of hiding, a certain God of Mischief would surely follow. He always did, didn’t he? Nick waved off Anne’s apprehension with a lazy gesture. 

“Call in Eckard. This has gone on long enough.” 

In Asgard, Loki and Lanie were lying in his large dark green bed, Loki’s body propped up on one side as he fawned over her with deep worry lines upon his brow. Lanie had been violently ill every morning for the last several days, and no matter how hard he begged, she all but refused to see the royal doctor. It wasn’t so much that she was afraid of what would be said, but she was afraid to leave the wing of the castle that housed Loki’s bedroom, in fear of running into Odin. Frigga had done well with their secret thus far, and if Odin was aware of their presence in Asgard, he hadn’t said anything thus far.

She rolled over on her stomach in an attempt at squishing the nausea that was cramping there, and let out cry of pain. Loki’s hands were immediately in her hair, peeling back the sheets in fear that she was about to be sick yet again. He wasn’t used to doting on another person like this, he wasn’t used to being riddled with this much concern. He hated it. When he spoke, his voice was weary and tired. “Love? What troubles you? How many times must I beg before you see the royal doctor?”

“My breasts feel like they’ve been packed full of ice, that’s all. I’m fine. Probably just going to get my period, it’s pretty late.” 

This caught Loki’s attention, his expressing twisting into something between fear and panic as he sat up and tucked his arms underneath her body. Forcing her into an upright position, he tugged her shirt off over her head and she let out a loud whine. “Loki no, I’m not in the mood for sex.”  

Loki grimaced, eyebrows knitted together as his long fingers very gently poked and prodded at Lanie’s breasts. He was quiet for a long moment, and Lanie was beginning to become frightened at all the possible things that could be running through his head. Loki was never this quiet, not with her. As long as they’d been together he’d been a curious, playful, talkative lover. He didn’t hide his thoughts from her. 

“Loki?”

“They’re swollen, and heavy. You haven’t held down breakfast in six days, the blood has not been upon you for well over a fortnight. I wanted you to see the doctor before, I am  _ requiring  _ it now.” 

The urgency in Loki’s words settled into Lanie’s mind slowly, her complexion paling as she realized the implication. Her large brown eyes widened, looking on Loki as if a deer caught in headlights. “You think I’m pregnant.” It was a whisper, barely, her breathing becoming ragged as she fought to suck in air. Why hadn’t she put that together before now? She thought she had the flu. “Loki I can’t be, I...I’m not…”

Loki shushed her gently, his eyes softening as he reached to tenderly pet her hair. He pressed a loving kiss to the center of her forehead,eyes almost sad as they searched her own for any sign of happiness. He found nothing but terror. “Are you angry?”

Lanie blinked at him stupidly for a long moment. “Angry? Loki, that couldn’t be further from the emotion I’m feeling right now. If I...if we...if it’s true, I am more than happy to mother your child. I’m more concerned about  _ your  _ reaction. I don’t want to burden you.”

The offense that flashed through Loki’s face was intense and Lanie immediately regretted saying anything. “Is that what you think? You think me to be some monster with no capacity to love or want a child?”

Lanie instantly cupped his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes. “Don’t you dare. Do not do that to me, I didn’t mean it like that and you know it. It’s just that I know you have to run from Thanos, and I know that you have had so much trouble with your own father. I just fear that it’s too much, you’d be better off without me weighing you down with a baby and making your life more complicated than it already is.”

Loki swallowed hard, unable to sort through all the emotions ripping through him at once. He was overwhelmed. “So what, then? You want to be rid of it?” The bitter tone of his voice made Lanie flinch from his grasp, and he sighed ruefully. He didn’t want to be upset with her. He reached to lace their fingers together, though he could no longer make himself maintain eye contact. “I didn’t...what I mean is, I am sure my birth mother thought the same when I was born. The bastard son of the king of Jotunheim, and a sickly bastard at that, I was to be more a burden to my father than an asset. So I was left in the cold to take my last breath, and I will not be the same coward who throws away his own flesh and blood out of fear of hardship. If you are to bare me a child, it will want for nothing. I don’t care how hard I have to fight to keep you both safe from my past, I will not trade a chance for a family for simplicity.” 

Loki’s emotions bled raw into his voice, and tears sprang to Lanie’s eyes. She hadn’t thought about that, and she the guilt was now eating her alive. “I-I’m sorry.” She fell into Loki’s open arms, burying her face in his chest as her body shook with heavy sobs. “I’m just scared.” His arms tightened around her, hands massaging into her back as he pressed soft kisses to the crook of her neck in an attempt at comforting her. 

“Do not fear. On my life I will not let anything happen to you. Either of you.” 

Meanwhile, on Earth, Emily was having a terrible, awful, no good, very bad day. Her head was killing her, she had no energy, and she had been bloated for the better portion of a month. She felt like death warmed over, and she was not entirely convinced that she hadn’t contracted some sort of horrible Asgardian illness. That would be her luck, wouldn’t it?

She was more than a little uncomfortable, fighting to secretly unbutton her pants as she sat at a cramped desk in the back of her biology classroom. The little pooch of her stomach was making it hard to fit into her size six jeans, and even harder to sit comfortably at these tiny school tables.  _ Note to self, must buy more medication for bloating on the way home.  _ She thought, paying very little attention to the lecture as her creepy professor, Mr. Eckard, droned on and on about cellular reproduction. She had been doodling in her notebook, tiny pictures of Mjolnir on the frayed edges of her paper. She missed Thor far more than she’d let on, and she missed Lanie and Loki even more. She hadn’t thought Loki would keep her best friend away this long, and she was growing slightly concerned that she would never see her again. She was lost in these thoughts when a ruler came down hard on her desk, her body jumping violently at the sudden noise.

“Miss Ramsay?”

Emily looked up to see an empty room sans the ever grotesque Eckard, and glanced at her phone in surprise. 3:30, everyone was leaving. The smile she shot him was apologetic, though she avoided the gaze of his beady little black eyes. The fact that he was this close to her desk was enough to make her hair stand straight on end. “I’m so sorry, sir. Time flies, I got lost in thought. It won’t happen again.” She lied, she always zoned out in his class. She was gonna be a chef, what the fuck did she need biology for? She tried to stand, but a wrinkly white hand pushed her back down again, and she blanched at the physical contact.  _ Disgusting.  _

“I’m sure you won’t, Miss Ramsay. But you are currently in a living arrangement with Miss Fenton, isn’t that correct?”

Emily tilted her head to the side. “Oh? This is about Lanie?” 

Mr. Eckard gestured toward his desk. Emily slid out of her desk and followed her teacher begrudgingly to the other side of the room, where he pulled something up on his laptop to show her. It was an attendance record for the entire semester, and he shook his head with contempt. “You need to inform your little friend that if she is not present at our next class meeting, she will be dropped. She hasn’t been in class in several weeks, and being an intern to fancy dancy Mr. Stark isn’t an excuse. She has responsibilities.”

Emily nodded quickly, a pit of dread settling in her stomach for her friend. She hadn’t even thought about the fact that Lanie was neglecting her studies, and she briefly wondered if she would be able to contact Heimdall. What other way did she have to talk to Lanie? There were no cell towers in Asgard. “I’m so sorry, she’s been a little sick. I will definitely let her know.” 

Mr. Eckard walked toward her slowly, and Emily backed into the desk in a last ditch effort to maintain her personal space. “Love sick, is she?” The purple bags under his eyes seemed to darken in the most menacing way, if that were even possible, and Emily stared hard at the linoleum floor.  

“What are you talking about?”

The laugh that came out of Eckard was throaty and unsettling, and his hands clasped around her wrists with a surprising amount of force. “Your friend has gotten herself mixed up in the wrong crowd. You don’t want to end up like her, do you?” His rancid breath was hot on her face, and frightened tears burned behind her dark grey eyes. This had something to do with Loki, she could tell…goddamn it, everything bad that happened to her had something to do with Loki. 

She gritted her teeth, feeling for her powers as the thought of someone hurting Lanie or Loki lit a boiling rage inside of her. Those were her people, no one touched her people. What she didn’t understand was how her biology teacher, of all people, was somehow mixed up in this mess. She narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?”   
         The bright leer he flashed showed copious amounts of rotten teeth, and he shook his head wildly. “It’s not a matter of what, it’s who.” Emily didn’t have time to process this before he grabbed a glass cola bottle from his desk and bashed it against the side of her skull.

Emily’s vision blurred at an instant, alarms ringing in her ears as the image of the classroom around her faded into nothingness. She felt her body slam into the floor with a heavy thud, and then suddenly, as if dragged to hell by the very God she was trying to protect, she was encased in the thickest and blackest nothing.


	19. Beer and Bruises

Tony lay still in his bed, not entirely in the mood as his wife kissed up and down his jawline roughly. His conscience was eating him alive, and he didn’t know how much more of it he could take. He knew what was going on. He knew Fury had hired that creep to bring Emily to Avengers Tower and lure out Thor. He prayed that she wasn’t in any pain, and regretted that she was caught up in all this. Hell, she deserved Avenger status after being put through the ringer, when it was really Lanie that Fury wanted his hands on. It was unsettling to him that Fury relayed this information through Anne, as if it were necessary to involve her in any of this. How often did she leave the tower to speak to the Director? And why? He knew better than to ask questions he didn’t want to know the answer to. 

Anne noticed that Tony wasn’t reciprocating any of her kisses, and sat up with an annoyed huff. “Since when are you not in the mood for sex?”

Tony didn’t know how to answer that without picking a fight, and kicked his legs out from underneath the covers. “I’m going downstairs to work on the NMI.” He tore from the bed without so much as a goodbye peck, and fiddled a bit with the settings on his watch. “JARVIS, order a pizza would you?”

Anne folded her arms across her chest and chewed heavily on her bottom lip. She grabbed her phone off of her nightstand and pulled up Nick’s number.  _ Tony is acting weird. Maybe we should start interacting via a middle man. Make sure Eckard gets Ramsay here in a timely manner.  _

Though, little were the Stark’s aware, that Mr. Eckard had no intention on bringing Emily anywhere near the Avengers. That wasn’t the deal. When Eckard drove into SHIELD’s base, Emily unconscious and tied up in the back of his van, he his took 5,000 for the dirty work and lifted the rear door so the director could take a peek. Fury examined her body for a moment, shrugging his shoulders as he pulled the door back down with ease. “Good work. Her vitals are strong, trauma to the head isn’t too severe.  You’ll get the other five grand when the job is done. Take her home, have your way with her a little, rough her up. Make a swift retreat back here when Thor inevitably shows up, I’ll be here to pay you up front, and my agents will have your apartment surrounded. They’ll take it from there.”

Eckard smiled his filthy, crooked smile and shook Fury’s hand hard. “Oh, thank you. It will be my pleasure.”   

Back at the palace, Loki had finally drug Lanie kicking and screaming to the hospital wing. She was laying on her back, Loki’s hands nestled supportively in her hair as they both watched with intent gazes at the screen of the ultrasound currently being performed. Loki had gone to fetch Frigga, who had barred the doors to the examining room and ordered that the doctors keep this information to themselves. No one was ready for how Odin was to react when he found out that not only was Loki back in Asgard, but that there was quite possibly about to be another him running around the realm in nine months. 

Frigga had her hands happily clasped at her mouth, happy tears shining in her eyes as she looked at the little blob on the screen. She knew what it was. “Is that my grandchild?” The nurse nodded, pointing out the tiny sac to the new parents, who still looked unsure of what they were staring at. It was barely the size of a sesame seed, but it was there, and Loki couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. 

Lanie noticed, looking up at him with damp eyes as she fought to keep herself under control. She was terrified, but at the same time her chest felt like it was about to explode with happiness and she didn’t know what to do about it. “Are you happy, Loki? Is this what you want?”

Loki couldn’t speak for a moment, bending to kiss her chastely, lovingly. He regained his composure, a bright grin lighting his expression as he looked away from all the eyes that were on him, embarrassed of his display of emotion. “Strangely enough, yes. I think so. Is it what  _ you  _ want?” 

Lanie didn’t need to think about it, nodding her head as she lost the battle with her hormones and burst into tears. “Of course it is.”

Loki chuckled, ebbing her tears with his thumb as he shushed her gently. “Do not cry, my love. You are a queen.” He waited impatiently for the doctor to clean her off before pulling her tight against his chest. He leaned in to press a gentle kiss to the crook of her neck, smirking against the soft of her flesh as he held her there. He was going to be a father, he wasn’t exactly sure how he was supposed to react to this information. He felt...one of everything. “It’s up to you how we proceed from here. Anything you want is yours.”

“I want only you. Always.”

Loki brushed her hair behind her ears and rolled his sapphire eyes playfully. “You already have that.” 

It was then that Frigga interrupted, stealing her son away for one moment as she pulled him into a tender embrace. Lanie thought it was sweet, the way Loki clung to her, the way the love seemed to radiate between the two of them. They didn’t exchange words, but they didn’t need to, there was more written in their body language than could ever be verbally expressed. Loki allowed himself a few tears, shown only to his mother’s shoulder as she held him there. She petted his hair in reassurance, and very quietly whispered in his ear. “I am so proud of you. Go, tell your brother of this news.”

Loki pulled away with a nod, eyes swollen with emotion, and beamed at Lanie, who he extended his hand to. He pulled her to his side, arm curled protectively around her body as his hand rested gently on her midsection. The couple hadn’t seen any sign of Thor or Emily in several weeks, and they walked off in no direction in particular to search for them. 

What they did not expect, however, was to find Thor passed out in the mead hall, where he had apparently been frequenting a lot lately. The God was laying face down in a puddle of Asgard’s strongest alcohol, and the smell of it hit them both in the face like a freight train. Lanie gagged hard, and Loki squeezed her hand. “Why don’t you go sit down, love? I’ll deal with...this.” Lanie obeyed, wanting to be as far away from that god awful stench as possible as Loki lightly kicked his brother in the side. “Thor?”  

When the god didn’t budge, Loki glanced over his shoulder at Lanie to make sure she wasn’t looking and kicked his brother in his ribcage  _ hard _ . Thor yelped, flailing around for a bit as he struggled to sit up. When he realized who was standing over him, he scrunched his face up in disgust. “Oh. Look who it is.  _ You. _ ”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “Have I...done something?” 

“When haven’t you, brother. I am not in a gaming mood, go away.” 

Loki was unsure exactly what to say, and he opened and shut his mouth several times before looking back at Lanie once more, who simply shrugged her shoulders. “Where is Emily? We need to speak to both of you, it’s kind of important.”

Thor gestured about grandly with his arms, fighting to sit upright in his drunken stupor. “Do you see her anywhere? Where do you think she is, brother. She went back to her pitiful human realm and left me here to stew in the fact that I am unlovable. Is that what you would like to hear?”

Lanie overheard that from her seat on the nearby steps and she whipped her head around so quickly she nearly gave herself whiplash. “Excuse me? How long has she been gone?”

Thor shrugged. “Dunno. The whole time? Who is counting?” He was slipping back into a coma-like state quickly and Lanie pinched her nose, walking forward several paces and grabbing Loki by the hand. 

“We have to go get her. She’s probably losing her mind, I feel so bad.”

   Meanwhile, Emily had faded back into consciousness a long while ago, and had been sitting in a cramped, dark space for god only knows how long. The smell that encased her was musty, like a closet, and there were a handful of candles strewn about the far reaches of the space. The light was dim, but it was enough to notice that there were pictures hung along the walls, pictures of her. She couldn’t even count the number of photos of her out in Brooklyn with Thor, whose face had either been cut or scratched out of every single picture. She was beginning to hyperventilate, as if the creepy photos of her own face were closing in around her, until she heard a slight scratching at the panelling multiple feet ahead of her. “H-Hello?”

The scratching only grew louder, as if the door was being pried away, and her heart leapt into her throat. Someone was coming to her rescue.  _ Please be Thor.  _ She prayed.  _ Heimdall, you’re a God, right? You can hear me? Please let it be Thor. Send him to help me.  _ “Help me! Help me, please!” Her heart was beating erratically in her ears, thudding hard with hope as the panel was rolled away, allowing natural light to flood into the closeted area. 

“No one can hear you but me.”

Fuck. All the faith in Asgard and their gods that had been bursting from her heart plummeted as she looked on the face of her kidnapper, who looked even worse in this setting than he had ever thought to look under the schools fluorescent lighting. His skin looked grey, his white hair matted and unkempt. She spat at him, and his smile only grew wider. “Now now, babes. Hush for me, please. This will go a lot smoother if you calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Emily quieted, playing along as Mr. Eckard slowly crept closer. He knelt before her, caressing her arms as he went to untie her wrists. “That’s my good girl. I’m going to reward you by removing these nasty restraints, hmm? Then you can show daddy a little appreciation.”

Emily fought the bile rising in the back of her throat as he touched her, kissed on her, waiting until he had finished unknotting her wrists before forcing herself to run her fingers through his nasty, greasy locks. She held still as a statue, keeping her breathing steady as she waited for him to free her legs from their binding. “I’ve waited so long for this, Mr. Eckard. I had to wait until Lanie was out of the way.” 

This seemed to please the dirtbag, who happily ripped at her restraints. The moment her feet were free, she kicked him off of her forcefully. She was proud of herself, as his body was knocked back a good distance and she was able to clamor to her feet. She raced toward the door, stopping only when she felt a sharp tug on her long burgundy curls, and was pulled backward as a searing pain radiated through her side. She looked down in shock, blood staining her light green tank top as Eckard ripped the knife out of her side that had just penetrated her skin. “What…” She stumbled, turning to look at him with an awestruck expression. She fought to conjure something,  _ anything  _ to defend herself with. She could feel magic encircling her fingertips, and she let out the largest blast of ice her body could muster before her knees buckled.  _ Heimdall...Heim… _

In Asgard, Loki and Lanie had raced down to Heimdall’s tower, to ask if they might use the Bifrost to return to Earth. The Heimdall they encountered when they arrived, however, was a disheveled ghost of his former self and the pair exchanged worried glances. 

“You must go to Emily, now. I can take you to her exact location.” He barked frantically, a bit of fear bubbling in Lanie’s stomach. 

“What’s--”

“Go!”  


	20. The Reunion

Loki’s eyes stared at the bifrost in a panic, hand reaching back to gingerly brush Lanie’s midsection as he made his decision. He turned to face her, hands curling in her hair as he forced their lips together frantically. “This isn’t safe for you. For either of you. I do not know what has become of Emily, but Heimdall would not be troubled were there not danger ahead. Go, get Thor, tell him to follow me.”

Lanie gripped Loki’s wrists desperately, shaking her head as her wide brown eyes begged him to allow her to stay at his side. “Loki she’s my best friend, I--”

“And she would want you to take care of her niece or nephew. Fair One, please. Do as I ask, fetch my brother.”

Loki needed her to obey, she could tangibly feel the distress pouring from off his body, and she nodded slowly, choosing to trust him with the person closest to her in all the world. She prayed she wouldn’t regret it, love him as she did. With tears shining behind her eyes and a thick, hot lump settled into her throat, she ran off in the direction of the mead hall. Loki let go of her reluctantly as she ran from his side, taking a deep breath as he sprinted toward the portal Heimdall had opened before him. Emily wasn’t just Lanie’s best friend, she was _his._ That made this personal.

Lanie bolted toward the sight of the drunken God, who was gurgling incoherently on the hard marble floor. “Thor!” When he didn’t budge, she jerked a horn full of alcohol from a nearby table and dumped it on his head, liquid filling his nose and dampening his long hair as he jerked awake with a strangled choke.

“Son of a bitch, Lanie, what in Odin’s--ugh, who am I kidding. You learned from the best.” He complained with a sour expression, obviously still annoyed from his earlier encounter with his brother.

Lanie rolled her eyes and reached down to tug hard on the God’s hand. “Thor there is no time for your pettiness right now, Emily is in trouble.”

That caught his attention, sitting up with a sudden sense of urgency. A serious, stony expression crossed his face, and it made Lanie wonder if he hadn’t been nearly as drunk as he was letting on. Drama queen. “What kind of trouble?”

“I don’t know, but it seems serious. I’ve never seen Heimdall in such a panic, what if...what if she’s…” Lanie couldn’t even finish that sentence, the lump in her throat worsening as the words stuck in her windpipe. Thor didn’t wait for her to finish, shooting to his feet albeit a bit wobbly, and he started for the door at lightning speed. He stopped in his tracks only once, upon realizing that Lanie was not following. He turned to shoot her a half-crazed expression. “Alaine, why are you not--”

Lanie cut him off with a sheepish shrug of her shoulders and wiped a tear from her eyes. “I’m a little...pregnant.”

Thor’s face contorted into a mixture of confusion and horror, and he opened his mouth to shout a perplexed _“with MY brother_???” but there was no time to waste, and Lanie shooed him off forcefully as she threw a chalice at his head from off the table.

“GO!”

Thor didn’t need to be told twice and tore to his brothers side, leaving Lanie alone in her turmoil to weep. His heart was aching in his chest, a wicked guilt seeping into him as he thought of all the ways in which he had failed her. He should have never let her leave without him, defenseless, no matter how hurt he had been. He was the God of thunder, and here he was, reduced to a whining and arrogant shell of the man he had been...and for what? Because she’d respectfully told him no? There were no words for the shame that overwhelmed him, and when he finally made it to Heimdall’s tower, his skin was pale as a sheet.

“My lord?” Heimdall asked carefully, eyes laced with worry at the disheveled look of the prince before him. Thor looked like he hadn’t eaten in weeks, a sickly green tint to his normally tan, olive skin. Depression and self-loathing did _not_ look good on him.

“How does she fare?” It was barely a whisper, and the way Heimdall avoided his eyes filled Thor’s stomach with a pit of dread. What had he done?

“She has only minutes. If you do not go to her, she will not see the morrow. Loki is close, go to him. If you do not hurry she will succumb to her wounds.”

Heimdall’s words were a knife in Thor’s gut, and he didn’t bother to attempt a coherent reply. Thor stepped onto the bifrost with  Mjolnir tight in his grasp, heart thumping in his ears as the dingy confines of a Midgardian dwelling enveloped his surroundings. He glanced around for his brother, finding that the door to the crumbling...house, if you could even call it that, wide open. Thor took the steps two at a time, a rage beginning to burn under his skin at the thought of her being locked in this...this _filth_. The walls were decaying and covered in mold, and the shutters were in shambles. Dirt seemed permanently caked to the flaky peels of yellowing wallpaper, and the carpet crunched beneath his feet as if made of glass. Whoever this disgusting pig was, he was going to pay for making his princess live in this manner. “Loki?”

“In here, hurry!” Thor rounded the corner, stepping through a dimly lit corridor and into a room with a large blood stain soaking into the dry rotted floor. He glanced down, crystal blue eyes widening in horror as he looked on his brother. Loki’s hands were soaked in Emily’s blood, pressed against her lifeless body as he struggled to stop the bleeding. Thor turned, glancing wildly about the room for the aggressor, and finding nothing more than the frozen corpse of Mr. Eckard strewn about in a corner.

“You!” He growled, body-slamming the carcass with a wet snap and raising his hammer high. Thor swung Mjolnir with a ferocity Loki hadn’t seen in years, bludgering the teacher’s head in with mad, impassioned swings. Meat and fluid leaked from the oozing and cracked face, Loki’s eyebrows knitting together in concern as he shook his head at the other god.

“Enough! Thor the man is dead, was dead when I got here. We _must_ go! I think...I think she’s with child.”

This was enough to snap Thor out of his blind rage, Mjolnir dropping to the ground with a deafening thud. “Excuse me?”

Loki gestured toward the small bump that definitely had not been there the last time Thor had gazed upon her beautiful body. Emily was tall, slender, the very picture of the hour glass figure that so many women coveted. There was no way that that tiny, perfectly round ball between her hips was fat, and Thor swallowed hard. The brothers exchanged hysterical glances, and Thor could feel his chest tightening and constricting against the hard thump of his labored breathing. “Heimdall, bring us back! Please!” There was a bright whirr of color, and the three of them were sucked out of the realm at the blink of an eye.

Inside the palace, Lanie was pacing back and forth, watching with mild concern as Frigga made preparations for Emily to be immediately hospitalized. She couldn’t handle this...Emily had been her best and only friend for over half of her life, she loved her more than she loved anyone. Whoever hurt her, when she got her hands on them…

Frigga glanced over at her son’s lover, gentle blue eyes softening as she finished hooking an IV drip to the bed the nurse had wheeled into the foyer. “Lanie, darling. Please do try to calm yourself. I know what she means to you, but you must relax. Imagine what Loki would say if he could see you like this.”

Lanie snorted almost cynically, which was terribly uncharacteristic of her and it concerned the queen greatly. “I don’t care, I want her back here safely, this is all my fault! I was off frolicking with a God while she was hurting and I didn’t even know! For three weeks I had no idea she wasn’t even here, I was too preoccupied with being in love and...and getting pregnant.”

Frigga laughed gently. “And yet you don’t regret those things, do you? Finding love in my son, carrying his child?”

Lanie sighed, laying a hand tenderly upon her flat stomach, and missing the feel of Loki’s touch. “Of course not.”

Frigga nodded knowingly. “Then you have nothing to be sorry for. You were living your life and she was living hers, you can’t blame yourself for things that happened that were beyond your control.” She walked to put a loving, reassuring hand on the small of Lanie’s back and smiled. “She is going to be just fine. Our doctor’s here are state-of the-art.”

   No sooner had the words been out of her mouth that Loki and Thor came barreling into the room, Emily cradled delicately in Thor’s arms as Loki continued to apply firm pressure to her wound. “Mother I need a surgeon and an ultrasound, immediately.” Loki barked, leading Thor over to the station Frigga and Lanie had prepared and helping him ease his dying beloved into the bed. Lanie shot to their side, fighting for a peak as blood continued to pour out of Emily’s side and down Loki’s arms. This did not look good...that wound was deep. Her eyes fell on her friend’s midsection, widening in alarm instantly as she fought the bile churning deep inside her stomach.

“Loki...what is that? Why does she need an ultrasound...tell me...tell me she isn’t…” Lanie was about to fly into hysterics, and Loki took Thor by his hands, forcing them down on Emily’s side to take his place. While Thor tended to the wound, Loki carelessly brought his bloody hands to cup Lanie’s cheeks, forcing her to look him in the eyes.

“You need to come with me, come on, you cannot be in here. Mother is going to fix this, we have done all we can for her.”

Lanie fought him, though she knew it was no use, and attempted with all her might to shove him off of her. “Loki no, no, let me see her, I…I have to…”  
“What are you going to do, darling? There is nothing you can…” He trailed off, a certain sadness darkening his eyes as she continued to fight his grasp. He sighed, not wanting to be forceful with her as he picked her up with ease. His strong, agile arms hoisted her up into a bridal style position, restraining her legs and she wriggled against him helplessly. 

“Loki please…please, if you love me…”

“Lanie stop it. You know my feelings. This is for your own good.” She could tell it was hurting him to hurt her, and eventually she stopped struggling altogether. Her body went limp with defeat, and she curled against his chest as he carried her out of the foyer and into his bedroom. She felt him bend to kiss the top of her head, and she wanted to cry in response, though she bit back the intense hormones flooding her body. This was a nightmare…this wasn’t real. 

“I’m sorry,” She whispered, feeling for one of his hands. He gave her what she wanted, threading their fingers together as he laid her down on the soft duvet of his bed and curled up beside her. “I know that you love me. I’m just frightened.”  
She felt his arms snake around her, tightening protectively as his large, lanky body enveloped her own. “I know, Fairest One. I know. I promise you, we _will_ make sure she makes it out of this alive. Thor would never forgive himself otherwise.”

“I would never forgive _myself_.” She whispered.  
Loki shook his head no, and pulled her into a bittersweet, chaste kiss. “Hush now, go to sleep.” 

Lanie didn’t want to, but she couldn’t fight it, tears burning her already tired eyes. Her fingers curled around the collar of his armor lovingly, and he petted her curls, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, until he’d successfully lulled her into a painful and utterly restless sleep.          
                         


	21. The Reunion Pt. II

When Emily’s eyes fluttered open, the first picture to come into vision was a pair of large, wet eyes and a mound of disheveled blonde hair. Thor’s muscular hands were wound tightly around her own, and he was whispering to her in a low murmur. The room was dark and quiet, as if it were the dead of night, and as far as she could tell, she and Thor were completely and utterly alone. She made as much effort as she could to squeeze his hand, his expression brightening the entire room as if by magic.

“Princess? Talk to me...please? Are you in any pain?”

Emily was numb, unable to move much of her body, and she glanced around curiously in response. She shook her head no, eyeing the IV drip, which must have been full of morphine, and noticing that her stomach was covered in patches and wires, as if being heavily monitored. She raised an eyebrow at Thor, fighting to find her voice. When she did, it was a raspy, low cough of a voice, and she scrunched up her nose. She didn’t sound like herself at all. “How long have I been out?”

“Two days. The doctors thought it necessary to keep you under sedation while they got your situation under control. You lost a lot of blood, my love, and our...well...part of you needed some heavy attention, besides your injury. We really need to talk.” 

Emily sighed, knowing good and well what this was about. Or at least...she  _ thought  _ she knew what it was about. She had been thinking a lot about that night on the balcony, and she knew from her conversation with Frigga that she owed Thor a bit of an explanation. “Thor...listen, what happened between us, it wasn’t...about you. Not really. I--”

Thor cut her off, kissing the back of her hand gently and reaching to sweep stray hair from her beautiful eyes. There was so much pain and guilt plastered on his face, and she couldn’t for the life of her understand why. “Don’t you worry about any of that. I don’t care about that night, you don’t have to love me. But Emily I truly, deeply, am in love with you, and I am going to do what is right by you regardless of your affections.” He tentatively stretched a hand across her bump, rubbing it tenderly as he searched for the right words. “Did you know, when you left? I swear not to be angry, if you...if you want to...go it alone. But I need you to know that you don’t have to, even if you fail to reciprocate the way I feel for you.” 

Emily’s face was blank, void of any comprehension of what he was implying. Her mind was focused on her deep seeded need to tell him the truth, and she pushed all thought of his words from her mind. “Thor I don’t...I don’t know what you mean, but I need you to listen to me for a second, without interrupting, can you do that?” 

Thor instantly looked ashamed of himself and nodded feverently. “Of course, forgive me. This conversation might be ill suited for your fragile condition anyway.” He gave her a gentle nod of understanding and caressed the back of her hand lovingly as she struggled to recollect her thoughts. 

“It isn’t that I don’t love you, it’s not that at all. Thor I...you are the sweetest man I think I have ever encountered. You never ask for anything in return, you never have once, even after all the little things you would do for me at the apartment when we were together. You are gentle, kind...and I guess most importantly you are so damn patient with me. And those are amazing things, but...they’re almost too amazing. Everyone has flaws, no one is perfect, and the last time I allowed myself to fall in love with someone who seemed perfect on the outside, I ended up exactly where I am now...hospitalized, only it was  _ him  _ that put me there. Do you understand?” 

Thor furrowed his eyebrows at her, chewing on her words for a moment as he attempted to piece together what she clearly didn’t want to come right out and say. “You think me to be perfect? Emily I know what I am. I know I am arrogant, selfish, self-righteous. If I have came across as anything less, it’s because that’s not the person I want you to see. Emily I would rather die than have you think of me that way, I strive to be better for you. If I am not mistaken, that is what love does. It changes you, betters you.” Emily’s tears spilled over, and Thor bent in to delicately kiss them away. “Who hurt you? Who made you feel this way?”

Emily sniffled a bit, avoiding Thor’s gaze as terrible memories flashed before her eyes. It had been a year...why was this still so problematic for her? She hated the mark he had left, the scar. She felt as if she would never truly be clean of him. “His name was Tyler Matthews. He was sort of my highschool sweetheart, if you will. We got together my freshmen year of high school, he was my first love, my first everything. He was the most charming, enigmatic, seemingly compassionate lover. We did everything together, even Lanie loved him. But my father and I started having some issues the summer between my junior and senior year after my mother passed, and Tyler decided that the best thing for me would be to move in with him. I was so in love with him, how could I possibly turn that down, you know? But he...turned out to not be the person I thought he was, and senior year was a living nightmare for me.”

“I would rather not go into the gory details, but the long and short of it is, despite roughly a year of mental and physical abuse under his roof, I thought he would be happy and that things would change when I became pregnant. But Tyler had just been offered a full ride to Yale, and all he saw when he looked at me was this bright future flushed down the drain. So he...he pushed me, down the two flights of hardwood stairs in the house his parents had given us. The baby didn’t make it. I just couldn’t...I couldn’t take it anymore after that. I’ve been living with Lanie ever since.”

Thor wanted to get his hands on this bastard. He wanted to make him pay...make him wish he’d never thought of breathing the same precious air as his Emily, though he had to remind himself to count to ten. He didn’t want to appear angry, not now that he realized how frightened she must be. His emotions were caught in his chest, and he could barely look at her. How could he have been so stupid? All this time he’d been worried about himself, like he always was. Thor had never hated himself the way he did in that moment before. He wished he could jump start a new personality, and he bit the inside of his cheek hard to steady his emotions. “I am so, so sorry. If I had known...I never, I swear to you I would have never come onto you so strongly. I am an ass...no, worse than an ass, I...I humbly beg your forgiveness.” Thor let go of her hand, appalled at himself, and took a few steps back to give her some space. 

Emily shook her head wildly, almost in a state of panic at the idea that she had frightened him away. “No please, please don’t say that. I didn’t tell you this to make you feel bad, I just needed you to know the reason why I’m not good enough for you. You don’t want this, you don’t want my baggage. You deserve so much more.” 

Thor thought he couldn’t have possibly felt sadder, but her words crippled him. No one should have to feel that way about themselves, least of all his favorite person in all the realms. No one compared to his princess, she was everything good and pure about the universe, and she didn’t even know it. “My lady, there is nothing wrong with you.  _ Nothing _ . I would have no one else, if not you. I meant it when I told you that love was not about worthiness, but even if it was, there is no one more deserving of my affection than you. I will always love you. Whether or not anything becomes of it is your choice, and I swear to you that I respect it, whatever it may be.” 

Emily honestly didn’t know what to say back to that, she was at a complete loss for words. The morphine was beginning to wear off a bit and she winced, crying out both in pain and frustration at the situation. “Why is it that everytime I bawl my eyes out in front of you, we end up in some form of a relationship?” 

Thor had to fight the smile threatening to break across his face, and he swallowed the hope that was bursting from his chest. “What?”

Emily rolled her eyes, trying so hard to be herself through all of the pain and overwhelming amounts of emotion coursing through her body. “I’m saying I want to be with you, you big idiot.” She whimpered, happier than she would ever dare admit as she watched his reaction explode. Thor was glowing with a kind of love that she had never seen before, and she knew in that instant that she made the right choice. Thor was never going to hurt her, she had more to be thankful for staring her in the eyes than she had ever had in her entire life. She grabbed him by his hair, pulling him gently into a long overdue kiss, and laughing at the way his entire demeanour swelled with affection. She was home. 

He nuzzled into her, hands all over her stomach once more. There was an odd twinkle in his eyes as he did so, a spark of something burning behind them that she couldn’t put her finger on. “Does this mean I get to be part of their lives? We...we can keep them?”

Emily sighed in frustration, though her hands remained curling softly into his long beautiful hair. “Thor, what do you keep going on about?” 

It was then that it dawned on Thor that Emily had no earthly idea that she was pregnant. He laughed nervously, suddenly insecure about how she was going to react. She had just confided in her that she had had a miscarriage, and he had no idea how recently this had been before he met her. He regretted anything he might have done to trigger her, and a wave of nausea hit him like a freight train. “Emmie…baby…I don’t know how to tell you this. I thought you were aware.”

Emily narrowed her eyes at him, not prepared for the sweetness of the moment to be ruined. “Tell me what?”

“You grow round with my children…twins. The doctor says you are about thirteen weeks along, ahead of Lanie by about ten weeks or so.”

That was a double whammy of information that she was in no way prepared for, and any color she might have been clinging to in her current condition faded completely from her face. She _and_ her best friend were…no, no, there must be some kind of mistake. Thor always used condoms, they were safe…she hadn’t had a period in a while, but sometimes that happened with birth control. She had zero reason to suspect…

“No, Thor, I’m just…I’ve been bloated, that’s not what it looks like.” She stammered, earning a small sigh from her boyfriend. He looked upset, he had anticipated a negative reaction.

“No, love. I’ve seen them, heard their heartbeats. They very nearly died, but I made sure the doctors didn’t give up on them. They’re little fighters.” He tried to sound optimistic, hoping for a smile, or any sense at all that Emily was happy, but there was nothing on her face save for pure disbelief.

“So…you and I are only six months from being parents?” There was mild hysteria in her voice, but she could sense his unhappiness and forced a wide smile. This perked him up considerably and he took the bait, kissing her with all the passion he could muster.

“We have twenty-eight and half weeks to go. Mother said we would know the genders in roughly three weeks, so not long.”

That meant she was on the cusp of her second trimester and Emily fought the intense gag that lingering in the back of her throat. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but right now a panic attack was coming on and there was more pain in her side than she’d felt when she had legitimately been stabbed. The room was beginning to spin, and she grabbed for Thor’s hand weakly.

“U-Um, Thor…I’m gonna need you to get the nurse.”    


	22. Towers and Tesseracts

Tony Stark’s fist was bloody and bruised from the force it was taking to pound his fist on the cold metal doors of Manhattan’s SHIELD base. He had been there thirty minutes and he damn well knew he was being ignored. Someone had some explaining to do, he had known something was up when Emily had not arrived the night of the kidnapping. He thought they were supposed to just hold her until Thor arrived, he thought she was going to be safe. _Where was she?_ It had been over forty-eight hours, and with an NMI and God only knew what else at their disposal, Tony had no idea what all they could be doing to her in there.

“I know you assholes can hear me! You have ten seconds to unlock this door, I will make you regret it.” He barked, spit dribbling into his facial hair as he kicked the door with a hard thud. _Goddamnit!_ He should have come to her rescue sooner, but Anne kept assuring him that they were only delayed, everything was under control. He didn’t know what had bit his wife in the ass, but he was about to find out. He had JARVIS running a virus through SHIELD’s databases to hack their encryptions. He had done this once before back on the Helicarrier, and while SHIELD had definitely upped their security protocols, it was nothing that a mind like Stark’s couldn’t handle.

 _Fine. They don’t have to let me in. When I get these results back and find out what they’ve been up to, I’ll report their sorry asses._ He thought bitterly, contemplating how exactly he would go about filing a suit or pressing charges against a government entity like SHIELD. As a Stark, Tony had a lot of pull with politicians and socialites alike, but not _that_ much pull. Not many were brave enough to act out against an organization with that much power. He waited only a few more seconds before JARVIS reported back.

“Sir, I believe you are going to want to sit down for this. It was never the plan to bring Ms. Ramsay to Avengers Tower, and I am afraid she isn’t here either. I’ve acquired SHIELD’s file on your wife, Sir. The prognosis is grave.”

Tony blinked for a beat or two, brain firing off at light speed to put the missing pieces together. “I was afraid of this. Give me everything you’ve got on Anne, I’m heading home, I should catch her before her next executive meeting.”

 

Meanwhile, Lanie stirred from sleep to find a long arm coiled lovingly around her body, fingers absentmindedly stroking her midsection. When she rolled slightly to peak at her boyfriend’s face, he seemed perturbed. He was reading an old, tattered book with his free hand, and he seemed completely and utterly lost in thought. She admired him quietly for a few moments, drinking in the soft and subtle beauty of his face. His skin was a pristine, beautiful color, and the gentle blue of his eyes popped against the green of the bed. His long black curls rested at his bare shoulders, and his lean, muscular torso rose and fell gently with his every breath.

She reached to caress his angular face, his lips switching into small smile at the feel of her skin against his own. “I trust my Fair One slept well?”

Lanie didn’t answer, her other hand lancing with his fingers as he continued to hold her waist. “What’s wrong, Loki? Look at me.”

He sighed, placing the book down at his side and shifting to meet her gaze. She could see that he wanted so badly to smile, to laugh, to cut up together as they normally did in the mornings. But something was troubling him this day, and it wasn’t something that could be easily shaken.

“I do not wish to cause you worry, love. I would rather pretend that all is well; I would rather give in to the false security of my homeland and pretend that we can stay here forever. But I grow wary. Lanie, I think we have stayed here too long. I do not like you being this close to the Tesseract. It isn’t safe.”

Lanie’s eyebrows furrowed in deep confusion, and she sat up straight. “I thought the Tesseract was in Asgard’s vault. Loki, I won’t go near it, you have my word.”

“Darling that is not enough. This entire realm is unsafe as long as the space stone dwells here. Thanos will come for it, and we need to be gone when he does.”

“So, you are suggesting we what, go back home? To Midgard? What about your family?”

Loki chewed on her words for a moment, unsure of how exactly to explain to her what he meant. Everything in his life was becoming so complicated, and he hated that she and their child were going to be mixed up in it all. “I am not suggesting that at all. What I am suggesting is far worse, and I need you to trust me, because Thor is never going to agree. He cannot know. It is you and me against the world, do you understand?”

Lanie nodded, a solemn expression creeping onto her face as she waited for him to continue. It scared her when he spoke of these things, of this Tesseract, and these stones. It scared her even more when he spoke about Thanos. She was so in love with him, and she knew that if she lost him to this fabled monster there would be nothing of her left.

“Good. Thor is never going to agree to allowing me access to the Tesseract, not after what happened the first time it was in my possession. However, I am not going to sit here and let Thanos destroy my home and my people. We _need_ to take the stone someplace else, we need to be out of his way.”

Lanie shook her head no, cupping his chin with her hand and forcing him to look her in the eyes. She understood what he was trying to do, but that plan might do more bad in the end than it would good. “Loki we can’t just dump something that powerful off on some other realm and forget about it. Sure, that saves the Asgardians, but it dooms an entire other race. Isn’t there anything Odin can do to protect it?”

Loki snorted, a bitter look flashing across his eyes at the mere mention of his father. “My father grows old, dear. I admire your sentiment, but sentiment gets you killed. It is best just to let it burn.”

Lanie pulled out of his reach slightly, unable to process exactly what he was implying. She wasn’t angry, she knew he wasn’t being malicious. Loki loved Asgard, Loki loved the subjects his family ruled over, and more than anything else, despite all the dysfunction he _loved_ his family. But something about it didn’t feel right. “How can you say that? Sentiment is everything, if you didn’t believe that it was, could you even claim to love me? Or your brother? Or our child?”

Loki grimaced deeply, his eyes darkening as he flashed her a hurt expression. This was the first and only time Lanie had ever seen his eyes mist at her own words and it was like a knife in her stomach. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him. “Why can’t you understand that I need to do this _because_ I love you and Thor, and _especially_ our child? Why can’t you just let me protect you? Where is this coming from?”

Lanie knew he felt slightly betrayed, and she flinched at the pain that had crept into his voice. Her lips began to quiver, and she could tell by the softening of his eyes that he immediately regretted his accusatory tone. “I just want you to be the hero that I see every time I look at you. We could fight this evil, here, where legitimate God’s reside. Who else is better suited to a fight of that caliber? Anyone else would be annihilated.”

Loki took both of her hands in his own and squeezed them firmly, looking her deeply in the eyes. He needed her to understand what she was asking, he needed her to see things the way he did, like he was used to her doing. “To ask me to fight Thanos is to ask me to die. It is to ask my family to die, and I don’t just mean Thor, but you, and our little one. You did not choose the hero. If that was what you wanted, you should have courted my brother.”

Lanie nodded slowly, knowing that in the end he was right. She couldn’t ask this, she had no right. If Thanos was truly as powerful as Loki made him out to be, she needed him to be as far away from the love of her life as was physically possible. “No, don’t say that. You will always be my hero, no matter what you choose to do. And I need you to be safe, I can’t live without you, I won’t.”

Loki’s laugh was gentle and tired; it was bittersweet. “Then you understand what I must do. I am content with being _your_ hero, I don’t need to be the world’s. Let me keep you safe, let me give our family a chance. Do this for me, and I swear to you, you will not lose me. We can hide someplace far, far away from it all. Just you, me, and our baby. But the Tesseract must leave Asgard first.”

Lanie nodded, leaning in to very softly capture Loki’s lips. His hands threaded through her curls, and he kissed her desperately, passionately. His thin, perfect lips moved against her own like they were born to do so, and she moaned lightly into his mouth. “I will follow you anywhere. Tell me what you want me to do.”

Back at Avengers Tower, Tony was furiously in search of his wife. JARVIS had told him everything on their way back home, and all Stark could possibly see was red. How could he have been so stupid? He all but kicked in the door to the couples’ bedroom, finding his wife having a hushed phone conversation at the foot of the bed. The sound of the door being forced against the wall startled the slender brunette, who nearly jumped straight out of her skin.

“I-I have to go.” She whispered shakily into the receiver, watching as her husband’s deep brown eyes narrowed into slits at her. There was no way he didn’t know, she had never seen him this upset before.

“Who was that on the phone, Anne? Director Fury? Or, I’m sorry, would you prefer me to call you Annabel, Ms. Klind?”

Anne’s entire body paled, and Tony stalked toward her like he might actually strike her. His body was trembling with barely controlled rage and he had to count to ten to steady his own breathing. “How many? How many times has SHIELD used me as a puppet to test their little machine? Because I know they’ve altered my memories more than once. You are _not_ my wife, hell, you are not even the Anne Belk from Kansas that I _thought_ I saved in the Battle of New York. No, you’re a fucking SHIELD agent that grew up in Queens and has been feeding your little friends information ever since they assigned you to implant new memories in my mind and get rid of Pepper. Is she even really dating Phil? Or is that memory false too?”

Tony didn’t let her answer before continuing. “I know what you’re up to. You SHIELD agents think you’re so smart, with your little encrypted databases and your cagey men in black. You have no idea how easy it was for me to get in, for me to see _everything_. And if Fury thinks using me as a guinea pig to weaponize that NMI and use it against people like Loki is going to fly, it isn’t. I _will_ find a way to stop him, and you can send him that message personally. Now get the fuck out of my house.”

“Tony, I—”

“OUT!” He bellowed, watching as she tore from the room without even attempting to gather her belongings. He walked toward their nightstand, slinging all the alcohol and bourbon glasses off the table and into the floor with every ounce of strength in his body. Glass shattered and splintered everywhere, and as he took a deep breath, he rummaged around in his pocket for his cell phone. He still didn’t know what entirely had become of Emily, and he needed to get a hold of anyone that could help, and as much as he hated to admit it, there was only one person he could think of.

“Banner, meet me at the Tower immediately. Alone.”  


	23. Game of Thrones

When next Emily awoke, more than Thor was at her side and she wrinkled her nose with a slight scowl. Thor looked upset, and she knew why, following his gaze to a tall, frightening and elderly man. Emily reached for Thor’s hand and gave it a firm squeeze, more than a little pleased as she watched his demeanour melt from pure rage to an affectionate mess with one touch of her hand. He bent to kiss her, the scruff of his beard tickling her face in her favorite way as she fought to sit up in bed. 

“Do not strain yourself on my behalf, princess. Take no note of my father, he is ill-tempered.” Thor said with a sideways glance at who Emily assumed to be Odin. He stood tall, like a mountain, face grim and eyepatch shimmering in the pale light of the morning. Emily’s eyes scanned the room for any sign of Frigga, to calm her own nerves, but the queen was nowhere in sight.

“Is it Loki you search for, Midgardian? I am unsure how long you seriously thought you could hide from me. The king.” 

Emily swallowed hard, shooting her boyfriend a panic-stricken expression. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but Odin intimidated her. His cold icy blue eyes felt as if they could flay her alive, and if she had been able, she would have ran at the first opportunity. She didn’t know what he was threatening to do to Loki, but considering his history, she knew it couldn’t be good. “With all due respect, Your Highness, I have no idea where Loki and Lanie are. I haven’t seen or heard from them in weeks.”

Odin shifted his eye to befall Thor. A stern and tight-lipped frown wrinkled his aged face. “Ah. So I see you are not the only of my children to shepherd unwelcome guests.”

Thor’s jaw hardened, and Emily mentally cursed herself.  _ Fuck, I made a mess of that.  _ Thor took a broad step toward his father, his crystal eyes daring him to breathe another word about the woman he loved. “You would do well to watch your tone, father. You speak of the women who will bare your precious throne its heirs.”

“Yes, I have spoken with your mother. I am aware of your... _ situation _ , that is partly the reason for my visit. You mean to tell me Loki has also spilt his seed into the belly of a whore? I taught you boys better. This is unacceptable.” 

Thor’s face reddened, and Emily readied herself as she expected to see him haul himself over her bed and tackle his father to the ground. However, the moment Thor opened his mouth to let out a snarl his father put him in his place. “ _ You will hold your tongue when I speak to you! _ ” Odin’s roar bounced off the walls, and Emily slowly but surely pulled the blankets up to her chin. She had never been yelled at like that before, and she didn’t blame Thor for biting his tongue. 

“You best hope I do not find your brother, lest his bastard never know their father. But Loki is not why I came this morn. I have come to question the injured party about her intention for these children. As an unwed mother, her bastards have no claim to our family unless she is willing to settle before their birth.”

Thor tried to control his temper, though the veins in his face throbbed as he fought to reign in the hatred behind his own voice. “Emily is not required to do anything you ask of her. I will ask her to be my wife when and if we are ever ready, not when you deem it pertinent. If you want legitimate heirs so badly, give the throne to Loki. He wants it enough to marry on impulse, I do not.”

Odin sighed heavily. He closed his eye, unsure what he could even say to ever convince Thor that he was wrong. If anything, he had fostered too much love between the siblings as they grew, Thor would always be blindly loyal to his brother. “My son, you know why I cannot allow that. The throne would suit your brother ill.”

“Why, because he is of Jotunheim? That didn’t seem to stop you when you built him up to believe he had as much claim as I to the throne.” Thor chided, pointing a thick finger directly in his father's face. “I know he is no saint, you do not need to remind me of that. But my place is not here, father. I belong in Midgard, with my family.” He gestured toward Emily, resting a loving hand upon her bump. “I am that realms protector, I am an Avenger. Earth is my home, and it will likely be the home of my children. So I beseech you; give Loki a chance. Maybe if you had done so from the beginning none of this would have ever happened.”

Emily, while moved to near tears at Thor’s renouncing of the throne of an entire realm to be with her, wanted to interject. She didn’t think Loki really wanted the throne, she didn’t think he would be happy. “Thor…”

She was cut off as a group of armed soldiers flooded the foyer. Odin and Thor were immediately taken back, startled by the loud clatter of armor against the marble floor, and the sudden flurry of excitement. Thor summoned his hammer immediately. He knew damn well that this many guards would rather lose their heads than interrupt the Allfather unless it were a dire emergency. “We beg forgiveness, Your Majesty, but someone has broken into the vault.”

Thor’s face darkened, a certain betrayal bleeding into his eyes as he swore under his breath and took off toward Asgard’s vault without so much as a word of parting to Emily. He couldn’t believe this, after he had just stuck his neck out of his brother.  _ It better not be missing _ , he thought,  _ this better have been petty theft _ . Though Thor knew of very little beings who could successfully sneak into the vault and evade detection, and as he skidded to a stop at the empty place where the Tesseract had once sat, his heart completely and utterly shattered. Loki had betrayed them all. Again. 

Lanie and Loki had successfully traveled via Loki’s secret passageways between realms, and when Lanie opened her eyes to find herself in Midgard, her eyes widened in horror. She turned to look on the man she loved, who seemed sincere in his sadness as he shook his head at her.

“Please do not be angry. I don’t want it to be here anymore than you do, I sympathize. But please hear me out.”

Lanie put her hands on her hips as if he had a mere two seconds to explain before she lost her cool, and Loki put his hands up in surrender with a sheepish smile. “I took your words into consideration, and I believe you to be right. It is wrong of us to pawn the Tesseract off on a defenseless realm. That is why we are bringing it straight to the Avengers. We will let  _ them  _ decide what to do with it, I would rather you be disappointed in them than in me.” 

Lanie was stunned for a few moments, her lips stretching into a broad smile as she ran and jumped on Loki, whose arms happily coiled around her waist. He laughed gently into her hair, and kissed the top of her head. “Oh ye of little faith. I thought you trusted me more than that.”

She nuzzled into his chest, taking in the gentle scent of his cologne. He always smelled so intoxicating to her. She hummed. “I’m sorry, my king, how  _ ever  _ will I make it up to you?” She asked with a coy giggle, causing the God’s eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. 

“Oh, I  _ like  _ this game.” He said with a chuckle, grabbing a handful of her ass and giving it a firm squeeze as he kissed her forehead and bent to whisper in her ear. “That is a promise for later, my love. We have to find Stark.” 

Lanie nipped at  Loki’s chiseled jaw, and ran her fingers through his silky hair. “Well, you got us close enough, come on. We can see it from here.” 

The couple walked hand in hand for a good while, a simple and happy contentedness washing over them. Loki was very much amused by the thought of himself being domestic, but that was how their stroll through the city felt. He was walking through fresh morning air, his favorite girl in all the world on his arm, and nestled within her lay the only biological family he had ever had. He wondered briefly if this was what life would be like for them, even as they ran to far corners of the galaxy. Would running be less terrifying with her by his side? Would he finally be at peace? He didn’t hate the feeling. He didn’t hate it at all. There was a certain amount of pride welling in his chest suddenly, as he realized that she was  _ his  _ girl and that her baby belonged to  _ him _ . He had never had anything like it before. This was his family. 

He grimaced slightly as he felt her cold hand slip from his own. She was fiddling around in her purse for her ID badge, they had made it to the Tower in no time at all. She handed it off to him with a small smile and gestured toward the door. “You go on up, okay? Do what you need to do. I’m gonna head over to the bookstore next door, and you come get me when you’re ready. Emily is going to be in that hospital bed for a while, and I know her, if she doesn’t have anything to read she’s going to go stir crazy.” 

Loki laughed at the thought of Emily choking Thor half to death because he was her only source of entertainment, and he gently nudged her toward the direction of the book store. “You are merciful, Fair One. Have fun, I will not be long.” He kissed the back of her hand tenderly, smirking at the blush that darkened her cheeks as he reluctantly left her side to disappear within the confines of the Tower.    


Lanie smiled to herself and played absentmindedly with a strand of her hair as she tugged on the book shops double doors. She walked inside and made a b-line toward the new young adult romance section, which had always been Emily’s favorite, not realizing that someone walked in closely behind her. The section was unfortunately quite small, and she frowned as she noticed that her friend had read the majority of these titles multiple times before.  _ Werewolves in Heat _ ,  _ Gangsters in Paradise _ ,  _ Hot for Teacher _ …Lanie shuddered at the thought of that last title, Emily did not need to be reading anything about teachers right now. She pulled one called “Illegal My Ass” off the shelf, thumbing through it with slight interest as she heard a strange noise come from the shelf behind her.   


“Hello?” She turned for a moment, checking behind her shoulder as an eerie feeling crept upon her. There was no one there, though Lanie wasn’t stupid, and her time with Loki had taught her to be on guard at all times. Nothing about her life was ever going to be normal, not now, and she couldn’t afford to take any risks, not when her instincts were screaming at her to run.    


“Hello?” She asked again, sitting the book back on the shelf as she backed closer to the exit. There was a faint rustle to the left of her, but she had little time to react before she felt a thick, hot cloth cover her mouth and nose. Her vision blurred almost instantly, and as she felt herself collapsing into a stranger’s arms, the only thing she could cling to was the thought that Loki was going to be fucking pissed.    



	24. Flightless Bird

Thor marched back into the foyer and made eye contact with his father, though Emily cleared her throat in mild annoyance. She was _not_ going to be left here with Odin, if it was the last thing she ever did. Thor turned to face her, sympathetic blue eyes drinking her in as she struggled to unhook herself from the confines of her IV’s. He stepped closer, very gently staying her hand as she fought to slide the needles from her arm.

“Emily. Please do not harm yourself. Father will look after you while I go to Midgard for a moment. I must exchange words with my brother.”

Emily’s frown pulled into a pout as she swatted his hand away. If Lanie and Loki had really taken the Tesseract, she knew there had to be a good reason, and she wanted to know what it was. Furthermore, the idea of Odin “looking after her” made her want to vomit all over the stupidly elaborate, glistening Asgardian decor. She slowly unhooked herself from the medical restraints and attempted to stand, in spite of Thor’s insistence otherwise. “Thor, I’ve seen women who’ve had _C-sections_ go _home_ after three days hospitalization, I can get up. I am going with you whether you like it or not.”

“A bit headstrong, isn’t she? Does she even care what becomes of your heirs?” Odin snarked. A dark leer seeped into Thor’s usually happy-go-lucky demeanour, and Emily couldn’t help the smirk that curled into the corners of her lips. _Yes, Odin...insult my honour._ She thought to herself, knowing good and well that a defensive Thor would let her come along out of spite.

“She is brave, and cares deeply for her friend. That is not a negative quality, father. As for the safety of my children, you leave that for me to worry about. Heavens forbid something should come of your precious bloodline.” He spat, glowering at Odin from underneath his eyelashes as he helped Emily stand on her feet for the first time in several days. “Come, my love. Gather your things, we are to be going.”

While Thor and Emily made the trek to Heimdall’s tower, Loki was growing restless. He, Tony, and Bruce, had been at one another’s throats for a while now about whether or not to hand the Tesseract over to the rest of the Avengers, and the discussion had come to a bit of a head. Loki was beginning to feel discouraged; he had thought he was doing the right thing here, but all Stark seemed concerned about was his “wife’s” involvement with SHIELD and the NMI.

“Tony, you are being unreasonable. You’ve said it yourself, Loki might as well be an Avenger. Trust him with this decision, let him give the Tesseract to Rogers.” Banner argued, pinching the bridge of his nose as his glasses slid down his face. Dr. Banner had been at the Tower for hours before Loki had even arrived, and the pair had been talking themselves in circles all afternoon. Tony was not in a place right now where he was willing to trust anything connected to SHIELD, and that included the Avengers by extension.

“Bruce, buddy, you aren’t listening to me. It isn’t Reindeer Games I’m worried about, _I’m_ the one that came to his defense, remember? That was _me_! But I am telling you, I have physical proof that they have turned this machine into a weapon, I’ve shown it to you, Banner. SHIELD is using memory data to create a weapon of mass destruction, and you want to hand them a fucking Infinity Stone?”

Loki had been quiet for a long while, watching the scientists bicker. The longer he stayed the longer his mind wanted to stray to his Fair One, who had been left to her own devices for quite a long time. He was becoming distracted by his own need to be near her, and to know that she was still alright, and he just couldn’t have that. He let out a long sigh of exasperation and shot Stark a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “I do not mean to sound ungrateful, you have put a considerable amount on the line in the name of my family. However, I should like to point out that the man out of time needs to be made aware of SHIELD’s nasty little indiscretions. He might be able to turn a blind eye to SHIELD erasing my deeds from the minds of citizens, but to turn the machine into a weapon that could alter all of reality around what only one organization wants us to think? Captain America is not going to sit idly by. I do not peg Rogers for someone who would wilfully hand the Tesseract to Fury.”

Loki didn’t wait for a reply, sliding the Infinity Stone carefully in its casing toward Tony. Tony and Banner exchanged glances with one another, considering the circumstances carefully. They were about to make some heavy handed decisions, and they did not do so lightly. Stark chewed on his lip for a moment, making his mind up as his eyes begged the God before him to not make him regret his choice. “Loki...if you hand the Tesseract over to us, and we give it to Steve, you are a member of this team. You are an Avenger. Are you...good with that?”

Loki wasn’t really sure that Tony had the authority to grant him such a title without the consent of the rest of the team, but his mind wandered to the look in Lanie’s eyes when she’d asked him to be the hero that she saw every time she looked at him. He knew it was laughable, the idea of him being anything more than the man he was; but there was something inside of him that needed her to be impressed, that needed her to see him in a light brighter than how he saw himself. “I am. Take it.”

Dr. Banner appeared more than a little surprised, but he and Tony both reached to put the stone in a special box, while Loki stood abruptly. He needed to make sure Lanie was okay, something didn’t feel quite right. “Not to cut this little ceremony short, but this Avenger needs to find his girlfriend. Please excuse me.”

Tony snorted, rolling his deep brown eyes at the God as Banner handled the stone. “Don’t let it go to your head, Loke. And tell Lanie if she doesn’t start coming to work I’m gonna have to let her go. I don’t want to, but I will.”

Loki waved him off dismissively and headed for the door, though he bumped into none other than Phil Coulson as he attempted to maneuver around the bend. A pit of dread settled into the God’s stomach, remembering the last time he had seen the Agent in action. He and very nearly gotten Emily and Lanie killed. Phil looked less than thrilled to see him, though he seemed to garner slight satisfaction in handing Loki the tattered piece of notebook paper clinched in his meaty fist. Loki’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion, though Phil didn’t owe him any sort of explanation, and he turned on his heel without a single word to strut back from whence he came.

Loki unrolled the scrap paper, his heart stopping dead in his chest as he read the writing scratched messily into the note. _Come to SHIELD’s base alone. You will turn yourself over to me, or I will take from you your very purpose to remain on this realm. --Fury_ Loki crumpled the piece of paper in his hand, a seething rage consuming him as his mind flashed with all the possibilities of what they could be doing to his girl. He had left her alone for ten minutes, _ten!_ He kicked a nearby wall hard enough to splinter the brick, angry mostly at himself. She was never going to be able to go off and do things, to have a normal life. And it was all his fault...he should have never...no, it was far too late for regrets. He knew neither of them would survive the process of breaking up with one another, and that only left him with one way forward. He was going to get her back, and when SHIELD’s walls ran red with the blood of every agent in that facility, maybe then the world would understand. God help anyone who disrespected his queen.

Lanie was waking up slowly, a nausea ceasing her as she began coming to her senses once more. She could feel vomit rising in her throat, and she struggled against the thick restraints she was finding around her wrists. “Come on, little one. Don’t be sick right, now. We have to find your daddy.” She whispered, choking her bile back down as best she could and attempting to slide her wrists out of the tight rope binding. The harsh white light of the room blinded her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard a voice address her from the far corner of the room. She couldn’t see, her eyes had not yet adjusted, but she knew that voice anywhere. It was a voice that made her skin crawl.

“Little One? Don’t tell me you let that Asgardian prick put his hands on you...after everything he’s done to this city. To your home.”

Lanie spit in his direction, her face reddening at the very thought that Fury had been keeping her in here for god only knew how long, not even aware of her condition. If anything happened to her baby she was coming for his throat. That was a promise. She was hot, too hot, and she was sure that was the cause for the nausea. She didn’t yet know what would and would not harm a frost giant in the womb, but she was uninterested in the notion that her unborn child could be cooking inside of her. “Turn the air on. And I need water. Now.”

Lanie’s vision was slowly but surely returning, and she could see his head cock to the slide slightly in what only could have been amusement. “You think you are in a position to make demands right now?”

She sneered. “You have a pregnant civilian being held in your custody. Either you change the temperature in this goddamn room and get me a glass of water or I will sue your ass for everything you’re worth when I miscarry.”

Fury scowled deeply at her, but relented, gesturing for a couple of his agents to do what she asked. He seemed to be at a loss for how exactly to conduct whatever it was they were doing, and Lanie was annoyed. She wasn’t sure if it was hormones or if she had been spending too much time with a certain God of Mischief, but she was one pissed off son of bitch. “You going to give me a reason for all this song and dance? Or are we going to stare at one another all day?”

“Miss Fenton, I would appreciate it if you cooperated. I am not here hurt you, I just want Laufeyson. Once he turns himself in you and your...creature...can go about your lives.”

Lanie had to force back a string of swears at the word “creature”, as if her child were any less a person because it wasn’t human. She thought back to the night Loki had called himself a monster, and her heart clinched in her chest. This is what people were going to think. This is how her child was going to be treated by the human world. There was no place for their family in Midgard. “You listen to me very carefully, Director. Loki is going to come for me, and when he does, you are going to die, and I will not stop him from splitting you from end to end. I don’t know what you’ve deluded yourself into thinking, but he isn’t going to just turn himself in. He is worlds stronger than you.”

Nick stood slowly, a cool and crisp expression on his face, unshaken by the venom in her words. As he inched closer to her, her body convulsing involuntarily in pure fear. His hand reached to press on her stomach, making intense eye-contact as her heart pounded in her ears. _Don’t touch my baby...don’t touch my baby…_

“Ma’am, you’ve already told me the one thing that assures me of his compliance.”

_Fuck…_

It was about that time that they door behind them exploded, shards of ice and chunks of metal flying everywhere as Loki stormed into the room like the eye of a hurricane. His sapphire eyes gleamed with a furocity that frightened even Lanie as he stalked toward Nick. His long legs took the steps in strides, carrying himself with an arrogance and superiority that was feral and animalistic. His every move was predatory. He didn’t speak a word as he slaughtered the agents who remained in the room, iced daggers shooting in every direction as he continued his hunt of the Director. Nick made no move to stop him, though he yanked Lanie up by her hair hard.

“Laufey’s son. You may want to reconsider your tactics.” He warned, pulling a gun from a strap on his thigh and pointing it at Lanie.

Loki was too far gone to reason, his body trembling with barely concealed wrath. It had been a long, long time since he had felt an anger quite like this, and the longer he watched the woman he loved struggle, the more he wanted to bathe in Fury’s insides. “I believe you have something that belongs to me.” He growled. His hands were beginning to turn their natural blue as he conjured ice to his fingertips, and if Nick wasn’t careful, it was going in his other eye.

“You are going to want to calm down. If you refuse to comply, your baby icicle isn’t gonna be around very much longer. I know you know what I mean.”

Loki laughed without a trace of humor, a cold, calculating, and unhinged smile breaking across his face. Nick was one of the good guys. Nick was SHIELD. He worked with the Avengers. There was no way he was going to murder an innocent civilian, Loki called his bluff.

“Is that so?” Loki stepped forward and jerked his arm back, magic about to explode from his body as he watched Fury frantically cock the gun in his hands and jab the barrel against her midsection _hard._ Lanie cried out in pain, and Fury’s finger pulled back slightly on the trigger before Loki shouted a “Wait, no, stop!” and knelt down before the director. He put his hands up in surrender quickly, eyes wet and terrified as the color drained completely from his face.

“Get up. Keep your hands in front of you and allow my agents to cuff you, or I swear to God, I _will_ shoot her.” Fury’s threat was not empty, and even if it was, Loki was no longer willing to risk it. His breathing was labored, staring at Lanie with an expression that shattered her heart into pieces. He looked shaken and devastated, as if for a split second he had really thought he’d gotten her killed. Loki climbed to his feet slowly, holding his arms straight in front of him as Agents Coulson and Hill both bound his wrists.

Fury cut Lanie’s own bindings and let her go, sitting his revolver down on the table adjacent to him as he walked over to assist his people. Lanie eyed it for a moment, heart beating erratically in her chest as she made a split-second decision. No one was taking him away from her like this, she was not spending the rest of her live alone raising a child that she couldn’t meet the needs for. She refused to live without him, and if he was going to be a criminal then fuck it, she might as well join the team. Loki’s wrists weren’t even locked in their restraints yet when she pulled the gun off of Fury’s desk, unloading three rounds into his shoulder as Loki took the welcomed distraction to knock Coulson and Hill clean across the room.

He turned back to look at Lanie, who was splattered in Nick’s blood, with a look of pure shock and a hint of pride etched into his beautiful features. She didn’t appear to be processing it yet, a wide look of horror and guilt already burning behind her eyes. He reached for her hand, squeezing it roughly in both gratitude and sympathy as he tugged her toward the door.

“Darling, I know this is a lot to handle right now but we need to leave. Now.” When her body refused to move, legs glued to the floor, he sighed and scooped her into his arms. “Don’t you worry, Fair One. I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”


	25. Flightless Bird Pt. II

Loki’s arms held Lanie against him steadfast as he bolted down the stairs and flew from the SHIELD base. He had to make it back to Stark Tower before the Avengers caught wind of what happened without knowing the full story. He knew Tony would believe them, he was the only one truly on their side. As he ran, he stole a glance at Lanie, who was curled against him and clutching his armor with one hand and her midsection with another. She wasn’t looking so good; her skin held a greenish pigment and she appeared emotionally drained, and yet an intense level of pride was welling in the Gods chest. She had shot another person in his name, she had sacrificed her own mental well-being to make sure he was safe. She was more devoted to him than he’d ever realized, and it wasn’t something he had been prepared for. 

His Fair One was stronger than she looked. She was brave, she was loyal. She really was the perfect candidate for a place at his side, and he found himself counting his blessings that it had been she who found him that night at the restaurant. She had single handedly saved him from himself, and while he knew he would never be safe from his past, he had found a partner in crime to walk this road with him, and that meant more than he could ever articulate. Her very presence gave his life a new sense of purpose. He had a love to protect, and a child to provide for. He had more now than any amount of Odin’s approval could give to him, and while it wasn’t what he had wanted, it was everything he never knew he needed. 

He felt her body jerk in his arms slightly, and he slowed to give her a moment to breathe. “Darling? Are you going to be sick?” 

Lanie wasn’t sure. Her stomach was rolling within her, as if she were on the ocean, and her heart was beating rapidly in her ears. She fought to steady her breathing before responding. “Duck through a back alley, I...yes.” She decided, fighting to hold her mouth closed as tight as physically possible until Loki skidded to a stop. Loki positioned themselves strategically, sitting her on her feet near an alley dumpster as he concentrated on his astral self. He pushed his illusion from his body, sending it to continue their escape route and hopefully throw SHIELD off their trail, as the sound of Lanie retching bounced off the dingy brick walls. He put a supportive hand on the small of her back, and used his other to pull her hair from her face. 

“I-I’m so s-sorry!” She whimpered through heaves, earning a small chuckle from him as he caressed her back in an attempt at soothing her. He hated seeing her like this. He knew the baby was to make her ill, but he hated being the reason that her body brought her harm. 

“Do not be sorry, my love. I jostled our child, it is my fault.” 

Lanie took a deep breath, attempting to straighten up as she felt the urge to vomit slowly subside. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and shook her head no. She knew whose fault it was, and it wasn’t Loki’s. “I was already nauseas, Loki. I don’t think our baby likes the heat, I feel feverish.” Loki felt Lanie’s forehead and grimaced deeply, she was on fire. 

“We will get you home and in a nice cold bath, yes? But first we must find Stark, we will regret leaving here without explaining ourselves.” Lanie nodded in agreement, about to creep toward the end of the dumpster and peak to see if the coast was clear, though Loki grabbed her arm and held her firmly in place. She shot him a quizzical look, though he didn’t answer, merely drinking in the look she had about her. Her perfect curls were messy, framing her delicate face as they had come loose from the bun on the back of her head. She was covered in another man’s blood, a man she had shot in his defense, and in defense of their family. Her large brown eyes were staring at him, love stricken...trusting...innocent. He knew she was waiting for him to give her an order, and in that moment he knew he had everything. This woman was his equal. She was crazy, she was gorgeous, and she believed in him and was faithful to him, no matter any consequence. Somewhere within him he had always known, but seeing her the way she looked that night, by the pale light of an overhead streetlamp, pregnant and fearless...he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. 

He moved his hand to very softly caress the side of her face, unable to quite comprehend his own words as they fell from his mouth. “Marry me.” 

The look that crossed her face frightened him a little, as the color drained from her lips and he felt her breath hitch in the back of her throat. Before she had the chance to respond he leaned in delicately, lips brushing her own in the tenderest kiss she had ever felt. She opened her mouth to him, and he nibbled lovingly on her bottom lip for a moment or two before pulling away. “Please marry me.” He repeated. His blue eyes were a vulnerable liquid as his hands brushed her barely showing midsection, and he kissed away the single tear that now treaded down her pallid cheeks. 

“Yes.” It was barely a whisper, but her lips twitched into a breathless grin, and Loki’s entire demeanour exploded. He kissed her once more, roughly this time, as all his anxiety twisted into a happy shock. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but a yes right off the bat was certainly not it, and his heart was about to burst from his chest. She wanted him forever. That was something he had expected from no one. Not a soul.

Back at the Tower, Tony and Bruce had been on the phone with Steve when Thor and Emily burst through the doors in a flurry of panic. Tony narrowed his eyes at the duo, unappreciative that they had somehow breached his security and barged in without asking. He opened his mouth to retort sarcastically at the thunder god when Emily shook her head wildly. “No time, Mr. Stark, Loki has the Tesseract.” 

Tony rolled his eyes, earning a ‘be nice’ glare from Dr. Banner. “You’ll have to hold on a sec, Spangles, it seems Point Break and his little female companion are a tad bit confused.”

Dr. Banner cleared his throat, pushing his thick, black-rimmed glasses further up his nose and shooting Emily a shy smile. “What Tony means is, um, Loki doesn’t have the Tesseract anymore. He brought it here, to us.” 

Thor glowered at his friend as a dark blush crept up Emily’s cheeks, though the God elected to ignore it. “What do you mean he brought it to you?”

“Am I literally the only one who has any shred of respect for your brother? The kid handed it over like an hour ago, said it wasn’t safe on Asgard and he wanted it brought to someone who knew how to properly protect it. That’s why Rogers is coming to get it in the morning. It’s all good, I even promoted him to Avenger status. You’re welcome.” Tony said nonchalantly, reclining back in his chair. 

Thor’s nose wrinkled up like he’d smelled something foul, and Emily couldn’t help the laugh that burst from her chest. That was going to bug the hell out of Thor,  _ his  _ brother? An Avenger? The master of the stabbity? Surely not. Emily doubled over with laughter, grabbing onto Thor’s arm and digging her nails into his arm. “Ha-ha-ha….ow! P-Please don’t let me laugh, Thor, it hurts.” 

Thor instantly bent to check Emily’s stitches when Loki all but kicked the door in, Lanie in tow. Tony put his head in his hands and groaned, though it was Banner’s turn to snicker. Loki sat Lanie down on her feet, placing his hand on the middle of her back and eying her for a moment, to make sure she wouldn’t be sick, before turning a panic-stricken expression toward Tony. He forced a wide grin, knowing that he was about to be in trouble, and his sheepish expression instantly filled Stark and Banner both with dread. 

“What did you do, Laufeyson?” 

“ _ Odinson. _ ” Loki corrected, a more genuine smile curling at the corners of his lips as he saw Thor turn wide, moved eyes toward him. “And I did nothing, the credit belongs to my fiancée.”

Emily’s head would have turned 180 degrees like the exorcist if it had been able, and she scoffed at the other couple. “FIANCÉE?”

Loki held a hand up to silence his friend, sighing in exasperation as he struggled to find the right words. The situation was...messy...to say the very least, and the last thing he wanted was for Lanie to be on the receiving end of any persecution. “Lanie has had a bit of a traumatic day, please be gentle with her. Your precious  _ director  _ decided to put his hands on what belongs to me, and I was willing to turn myself in to protect those that I love. However, Lanie was not willing to let him abscond me away from her...and she...shot him. In the shoulder, I should suspect him to recover, he was not dead when we left. But we thought you needed to hear it from us first.” 

Banner was the first to jump to his feet. “You  _ shot  _ Nick?”

Lanie flinched at the concern and accusations mixed in Bruce’s tone and body language, and Loki had to fight the urge to growl at him. “One tends to act defensively when there is a gun pointed at your unborn child.” Loki spat, a bitterness radiating off of him that seemed to be contagious. Emily and Thor exchanged horrified glances. 

“He did what?” Thor’s tone was clipped and deadly, and Tony put his hands up, gesturing for everyone in the room to calm down. 

“Would everyone please breathe? This might actually be a blessing in disguise. I mean the other Avengers have been having a hard time pointing any fingers at Fury, right? Lanie, if you testify what happened to Steve, we might--” Tony paused, looking Lanie up and down for a few moments. “Are you alright, Alaine? You are sweating buckets.”

Lanie was still hot, like her very insides were scorched by New York’s ninety-degree April weather. It was a muggy night, and she had been pouring sweat since she had woken up in the SHIELD base. Asgard wasn’t this hot…Asgard… _ whoa. _ Her head was spinning, and she closed her eyes, clinging to Loki’s hand to steady herself. “I’m fine, I-I just…”

Loki squeezed her hand and checked her forehead once more as his eyebrows knitted together in concern. “We need to get you home, darling. I know, just a few more moments, okay?”

Lanie nodded, but Tony shook his head. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he could tell she needed to lie down, and he pointed toward the door. “Get her out of here, Rock of Ages. You worry about taking care of your family, Bruce and I will worry about SHIELD.”

The smile that Loki shot the other Avenger was as charming as it was sincere, and it caught Stark slightly off guard. He wasn’t used to Loki of all people being one hundred percent genuine. “I owe you a debt, Stark. I will not forget it.” Tony nodded, a small smirk of solidarity passing between them before Loki felt Lanie’s faint grasp on his arm loosen.

Loki turned, eyes widening as his long arms shot out to catch Lanie’s body as she went limp. He scooped her up, cradling her in one arm and fanning her with his other. Emily and Thor both seemed to fly into a panic, though Loki shushed them both urgently. “I think she’s alright, we just need to go. Heimdall, take us back!”

Before the Bifrost opened and pulled the four of them inside, Loki made eye contact with Tony and nodded his head in appreciation. “Thank you.” 


	26. The Cold Never Bothered Her Anyway

When next Lanie awoke, she was wrapped in a familiar embrace. Her body was chilled, but it felt soothing, and her eyes fluttered open to peak at her fiancé. Loki's worry lines immediately lessened, and he let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Lanie's eyes were wide, shocked slightly, as she realized that the man she loved was a little different than the last time she'd seen him. His skin was a deep blue, and his eyes a dark crimson. She didn't comment, simply tracing the intricate pattern that littered his skin with her fingers gently. The light frosted lines began at his hairline and traveled down his body, tribal and curved. He was more beautiful than she could have imagined.

It was then that she took note of their surroundings. Loki lounged back in a deep, clawfoot bathtub, water cold and filled with cubes of ice. Lanie was laid back in his lap, skin turning a slight purplish color from the frigid cold, though it felt amazing against her hot and tired body. This baby was doing something to her. It was...strange. She reached to lace her fingers between his own, admiring the new texture of his hands. The color was so vibrant, and it felt like a marble etching compared to the softness of her own. It intrigued her. "You are so beautiful."

Loki was quiet for a moment, unsure how to respond. He hated himself for looking this way, it was unusual to hear such high praise. "Truly? And what is this sudden love for the Frost Giants, hmm?"

Lanie raised an eyebrow. "There isn't anything sudden about it. You are a Frost Giant, and I love you. Our baby is a Frost Giant, and I love it. You are no monster to me."

"You are not afraid?"

"Never."

Loki didn't seem like he knew how to process that, but it was okay. His understanding was not required. His arms tightened around her, and he buried his ice blue face into her dark curls. He had  _never_ shown another his Jotun form freely, not even Thor. It took a level of trust he never thought he would share with another. And for her to sit there and tell him he was beautiful? Where had this woman been the last fifteen hundred years? "I thought my natural form would aid in cooling your body. I think we need to keep an eye on your body temperature. Our child was conceived of Jotunheim, whether I like it or not. We must be careful; we do not know it's needs."

Lanie frowned deeply, though she couldn't help the sigh of pleasure that escaped her lips as Loki's long and nimble fingers gently massaged her scalp. He very gently threaded shampoo throughout her bouncy curls, and he wrapped his obscenely long legs around her waist possessively. He wanted to comfort her, but his words were all but ringing in her ears. "We don't know it's needs." She repeated slowly, reaching around to put a frightened hand on his arm. "You don't think we will lose it, do you? Loki I... I can't...I won't survive that. We need to figure out what is and is not normal for a Frost Giant pregnancy, and soon."

Loki blanched at the very thought of what she was implying, and he rinsed her hair quickly. When he was done, he turned her around in his arms to look at him, and his crimson eyes shone with a fierceness and determination she knew all too well. "We are not losing anything. I have my mother's word, she will teach us what she knows. She may not have given birth to me, but she did raise me from infancy, and I am living am I not?" He didn't wait for a response, pulling her into a deep kiss.

Lanie's entire body shivered, moaning into his mouth as she reveled in the new feel of his mouth. He tasted like Loki, his beautiful thin lips felt like Loki. But the temperature, the texture...it was like kissing him for the very first time. It was different, new. Loki's body reacted accordingly, turned on by the sound of her moan as he pushed her onto her back softly. He kissed down her neck, hands cupping and massaging her breasts as he smirked against her skin. "I will take care of you, Fair One. I do not want you worrying about this baby, you leave that to me. Am I understood?"

When Lanie didn't respond, Loki's fingers trailed down her body, sliding into a sensitive area with a sharp prod as Lanie let out a loud whimper. "Am I understood?" He repeated, more firmly this time, though he didn't lose the playful glimmer stretching from his eyes to his grin. It made her laugh.

"Yes, sir." She kissed him once more, slowly, chastely. Her large brown eyes were wide with adoration and she caressed Loki's face with the back of her hand. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." He kissed the center of her forehead, curling his fingers inside of her as there was a loud knock on the bathroom door.  _Shit._ "Whomsoever is knocking on that door better be dying."

Lanie pinched Loki playfully under his arm for being rude and he swore with a light chuckle, rolling off her and back into the ice-cold water as he heard the voice of his brother call out from the hallway.

"Brother, we need you and Lanie to finish your frolicking's. We must return to Midgard, there are things Emily says must be worked out immediately."

"Thor, can it not wait? I am a little preoccupied." Loki complained through gritted teeth, though one look from Lanie had him sighing in resignation and slowly returning to his normal Asgardian shade of pale. He reluctantly removed his long fingers from his favorite of places and clamored from the bath with a deep-set scowl. "Are you feeling well enough, love?"

Lanie nodded and accepted his extended hand, allowing him to help her to her feet and out of the tub. He wrapped a golden towel around her delicate frame and kissed her temple, grabbing for a small bag he'd sat on the sink as he'd drawn the bath earlier. Lanie eyed the bag curiously and raised an eyebrow, though Loki pressed a slender finger to her mouth with a coy smile. He placed the drawstring bag in her hand, a mischievous light dancing behind the blue of his eyes. "Open it."

"But Thor—"

Loki shushed her once more, shaking his head as his gaze doted on her every feature. "We will go in a moment. Open it."

Lanie pulled gently at the strings and peered inside. Her eyes widened, reaching in to pull out the bags contents as she excitedly let go of the tiny bag. In her hand, sat a palladium ring. Thinly carved branches and leaves curved around the diamond in the center, as if a shiny silver tree were presenting her with all the love in the world. Lanie didn't know what to say, and Loki silently took the ring from her grasp and slid it onto the third finger of her left hand. He then peppered her hand with kisses and smirked to himself against the cold sheen of the metal. "My mother's. She gave it to me not long after I brought you here. I think she finds you truly remarkable."

Lanie's eyes filled with tears, shaking her head no as a breathless laugh nestled shakily in her chest. "Loki, I...it's beautiful, but I can't accept this. Thor is the firstborn; this ring should be Emily's."

"Fair One, Emily does not wish to marry Thor. At least not for a very long time. My mother grows old. She wants to pass something along to us, she wants to see one of her sons marry in her lifetime. Let her do this, love. Thor will live."

Lanie buried her fingers in Loki's hair, tugging him toward her for a light, happy kiss. He chuckled against the soft of her mouth, rubbing their noses together as he pulled her tightly against his body and reached for the doorknob.

 

When the Bifrost opened, the two couples found themselves outside of Emily and Lanie's apartment. The gods eyes shifted around the yard for several moments, acutely aware of the fact that SHIELD was probably watching their every move. It had not been long since Fury had been maimed, but SHIELD was an organization that operated in a timely manner. SHIELD didn't take shit from anyone, and rarely answered to their own government. Thor and Loki both knew they could not linger long.

Thor would not look his brother in the eyes, and Loki knew that he had no doubt noticed the ring that now glistened brightly on Lanie's finger. He was toying with the idea of bringing up how happy he was about the engagement, to perhaps lessen Thor's bitter attitude, but he thought better of it. He knew Emily was adamant about not marrying to satisfy the demands of their father, and he did not wish to pour salt in an open wound. 

Emily turned the key in the door and walked inside the apartment, calling out for Milo as she ripped the eviction notice off the door bitterly. She hadn't been able to make up for Lanie's half of the rent while she'd been living in Asgard, and three days of the dog being left to his own devices? The apartment was probably destroyed. There was a knot in her stomach, praying to all the god's in existence that the poor puppy hadn't starved to death. "Milo, here boy, c'mon." She called with a whistle, making a pat-pat sound with her hand on her thigh. She suddenly could hear the pitter patter of little claws on the hardwood floor, and her heart swelled...though...not as much as her eyes did when she realized just how bad the devastation really was.

There was shit everywhere. Literally. The dog had pooped in every crevasse that living room had ever dreamed of having, and the throw pillows from the couch lay in tatters on the floor. There was brown stuffing strewn about, mixed with the piles of shit, and the garbage bin had been knocked over and ripped into. The house smelled like a sewer pit, and when the tiny Maltese mix finally strutted into vision, he had an old, used maxi-pad stuck to his fur. Emily fought the urge to gag, especially as the rust colored furball ran and pounced on her, seemingly having a seizure of pure happiness that his human had finally returned to him.

Lanie had gone pale, glancing up at Loki with a look of apology, pure disgust written in her eyes. "Um...well...I see why we are being evicted." She turned her gaze to Emily, shrugging at her sheepishly with a guilty smile. "I am so sorry, Emmie. This is my bad, totally my bad."

Emily glared at Lanie, though she had a hard time holding it and it dissolved into a resigned laugh. "Eh, what the hell. I guess we needed to move anyway."

"That's the spirit!" Lanie agreed cheerily, trying to hide her smile as she caught another intense glare from her best friend. Milo rolled around on the floor, suffocating himself in dirty tufts of fur as Emily attempted to pry the feminine product off his body. He barked happily at the attention, and Thor couldn't help the hearty chuckle that rattled his chest.

"Ah, the animal is proud of himself. It is pathetic, and...adorable." Thor's tone was affectionate, though he earned a light slap from his girlfriend, who tried to wrestle the dog into her arms.

"Would you shut up and help me put him in the sink? We aren't taking him home smelling like aged menstruation."

Thor's face lit up like a Christmas tree, reaching to gently brush the burgundy curls from Emily's face. He tucked the strands behind her ear lovingly, his fingertips lingering on her face as he did so. "You just...called Asgard  _home_."

Emily wanted to snap at him, but she didn't at the same time, and her lips twitched as she fought the grin that was breaking across her face. Why was he so cute? She hated him for being so damn cute. "I wouldn't expect to hear it ever again. Slip of the tongue."

Thor knew she was teasing, and his smile only widened. He leaned in to press a tender kiss to the crook of her neck, and wrapped his arms around her waist, his hands cupping her tiny bump. "Yes,my lady. Whatever aids you in sleep at night."          


	27. Parental Guidance

 Emily rolled onto her back with a hard grunt. She was only half awake, and she could feel her twins kicking her steadily from underneath her ribs. It had been thirteen weeks since the stabbing, and her babies, sons, as they had found out, had been growing at a steady and healthy pace. They were strong, and their little feet pressing against her this early in the morning usually brought an elated smile to the young mothers face. This morning, however, as she reached to Thor's side of the bed and felt him not, her entire body seized with panic.

Emily's open wound may have healed, but the mental and emotional scarring that comes with killing another human being...it was something she doubted would ever go away. Some nights she was just fine, she was every bit the woman she had been before Thor had walked into her life, only...happier. She had an amazing boyfriend, she was twenty-six weeks pregnant with twins that she had grown awfully attached to...but, some nights, that wasn't enough to keep Eckard from creeping into her dreams. She couldn't handle it when Thor slipped from bed early in the mornings, she felt unsafe without him there. She felt trapped in her own sleep paralysis.

Her blood curdling shriek could be heard down the hallway, and Thor had to apologize to Loki for cutting him off. He bolted down the long corridor and all but kicked his own door down, though he knew good and well what was going on. Guilt flooded his baby blue eyes as he crawled onto the bed beside her, regretting leaving her for anything in the word. His large hands cupped her swollen abdomen, and he leaned in to kiss her very gently. "Shh, princess. I am so sorry, I shouldn't have stepped out, Loki knocked. Please breathe. You are safe, I am right here."

Emily fought to catch her breath, her body jerking forward slightly as her paralysis broke and she was able to sit at full attention. "T-Thor, are you alright, a-are...please don't leave, I need...I need you safe." She stammered, breaking into a cold sweat as Thor kissed away the tears that were slowly rolling down her pale cheeks.

"Sweet girl, where in these nine realms would I ever go? I am here until you send me away. This I swear."

"W-Where were you? I...I felt and you were g-gone."

"Loki knocked, as I said. He was letting us know that Lanie goes in for her sixteen week ultrasound this morn. If the child cooperates, they may tell the sex. That is all he wanted, to let us know we may join should we wish to."

Thor's deep, velvet voice calmed her. She took a deep breath, shaking the irrational thoughts from her mind as she buried her face into his chest. His arms snaked around her tightly, and he cradled her there for several long moments, until she finally spoke. "Let them have their private moment. We have to get ready."

Thor's eyebrows knitted together, and he pulled away from her in slight confusion. "Ready for...?"

Emily fought the opportunity to roll her eyes, and she sighed once more. "Please don't tell me you forgot. We are going to see my family? I can't exactly pop out tiny heirs to a foreign throne without telling my family that I even carried them."

Thor slid off the bed quicker than he'd entered the room, and he shook his head wildly. "If I am being subject to this, Loki shall come as well. We will go after the visit in the doctors chambers. Lanie's family must know also, and I...I cannot...your father frightens me."

Emily couldn't fight it anymore, she shot the god the eye roll of all eye rolls. The love of her life was over six feet tall and had more muscle than Dwayne Johnson, and he was scared of  _her father_? The tiny, middle aged, British chef, who had no supernatural powers whatsoever? She scoffed, folding her arms overtop her round stomach. "Thor. My father would break his hand on your face. That is how ridiculous you're being right now."

Meanwhile, while the couple bickered, Loki had walked back toward the doctors wing to meet with both Lanie and his mother. The ultrasound was not to take long, and once they knew their little one's gender they were going to proceed with plans for their upcoming wedding. Lanie had not realized exactly what marrying an Asgardian prince meant, and while Loki was soaking up every ounce of attention that was thrown their way, Lanie was quietly screaming on the inside. She fiddled with her engagement ring nervously as Frigga asked Loki a bunch of questions about arrangements, and Loki had taken notice of her discomfort quickly. He laid a calming hand on the small of her back and smiled politely at his mother. "Mother, darling, might we continue this after the appointment?"

"Oh of course, Loki, excuse me." She said with a graceful bow and and pat to her sons hand. She stood, giving the pair some space as Loki leaned in to kiss the corner of Lanie's mouth.

"You are having second thoughts, aren't you?" His tone was not accusatory, but it was sad, and thoughtful. It killed him to think he might be rushing her, or that she might not want to marry at all. He didn't want to do anything that would make her unhappy. Loki craved love, he was so starved of it. But he was not about to force the one person he loved more than anything to spend the rest of her life with a monster. He would let her go in a heartbeat, were it what she wanted. "I do not want you to think that bearing my heir forces you into an unwanted union. Please only marry me if you want it...I, I could not bare to be the source of your discontent."

Lanie shook her head, her expression twisting into pure chagrin at the very suggestion. "What? Loki, you are the love of my life. I want nothing more than to marry you."

Loki laughed gently, a sullen playfulness twinkling in the crinkles of his eyes. "Oh? Is that why you look like you would rather be anywhere else in the world right now than here?"

Lanie took a deep breath, lacing her fingers between Loki's own with one hand, and cradling her small bump with the other. "You are perceptive, Loki, I will give you that." They shared a laugh, though it didn't quite meet Loki's eyes, and she could tell that he was growing anxious. She squeezed his hand. "It's not the marriage I have cold feet about. I am overjoyed to be marrying you. But I'm slowly realizing that...this is huge, right? I'm going to be more than just your wife, I'm going to be a princess, we are going to be married in front of an entire kingdom full of people."

Understanding washed over Loki's features and he visibly relaxed. The last thirteen weeks had been wonderful, and he was relieved to know he wasn't the only one that thought so. Loki had taken her all over, and shown her many things. While Tony and Bruce had been working on building a reverse NMI to break SHIELD's hold on the world's memories, things had otherwise been quiet. Frigga had been in charge of wedding planning, and Thor and Emily had been busy preparing for two twins that were rapidly approaching their anticipated early arrival date. That had left Loki and Lanie alone, and they had more than taken advantage of it.

Loki hadn't been kidding when he'd said he didn't like to sit still. He had shown her the dwarves of Nidavellir, and the light elves of Alfheim. He had shown her the passageways between realms that didn't require the bifrost, and they'd snuck a brief visit to his birthplace in Jotunheim. He wanted to show her the kind of life he was interested in building with her, he wanted to show her the places he made mischief in when he wasn't in Asgard, he wanted to show her himself. No illusions, no facades, just...Loki. He pulled her into his lap, hands coiling around the obvious baby bump that now poked out from between her hips. He kissed the top of her head and smiled into her curls. "Is that all? Fairest One, you needn't worry about that. My mother is going to throw a ball, and I know you aren't used to that. But you do not have to leave my side for anything, and the moment you are uncomfortable you tell me. I will whisk you away, I will take you anywhere. Let Asgard celebrate a royal wedding, they will not notice if we slip away for some privacy. Just you and I. I promise."

Lanie took a deep breath and nodded, kissing the crook of Loki's long neck lovingly as the doctor slowly approached. She cleared her throat, patting the examining table she needed Lanie to lie down on. Loki laughed awkwardly, cheeks reddening as he scooped Lanie into his arms and carried her to the table. He sat her down gently, grinning at her wide as a Cheshire cat as the appointment began, and he heard the sweetest sound in all the world...his child's heartbeat.

Back on Earth, Fury was sitting at his long mahogany desk at the SHIELD base, head planted in his sweaty hands as he fought the insanity swirling in his mind. He had healed from his gunshot wound nicely, and had gotten back to work as soon as was physically possible, though he had been begged by more than one Agent to take a longer leave of absence. Those who had known him the longest were growing weary, they knew what prolonged exposure to Loki's sceptre, which had been comondered post-Battle of New York, could do to people.

Fury was SHIELD's director, he was the only one trusted with the sceptre. But even Nick Fury wasn't made of pure steel, and Coulson especially had seen the Director's mind slipping a long time ago. Nick had  _insisted_ they use the sceptre to build weapons of mass destruction. He had  _insisted_ on the NMI, he had  _insisted_ they continue the development of "Phase Two" behind the Avenger's backs. Fury had become so obsessed with protecting Earth from any and all threats that he was losing himself in the process, and no one wanted to be the one to break that news. After what had happened with Emily and Lanie? No SHIELD Agent had the audacity to call him out.

Lucky for SHIELD, they didn't have to. There was more than enough evidence damning Nicholas Joseph Fury; Stark Industries blueprints for a machine Tony had no memory of building, a fake marriage with illegally forged documentation, the death of a man who was paid ten grand to kidnap a civilian, and now there was security footage of Fury attempting to shoot Stark's pregnant intern in order to bring Loki to "justice". Tony Stark had everything he needed to bring the Director to his knees, and following a long meeting with Steve Rogers, that was exactly what he came to SHIELD to do.

There was a loud bang on the titanium door to Nick's office, and it broke him from his thoughts abruptly. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to dab his perspiration and pressed a button under his desk quickly. The wall to the left of him, where the sceptre was mounted, revolved around until the wall appeared blank. The Director wiped his face once more and fidgeted nervously with his eyepatch. "Come in."

The door was flung open with such a fervor that there was no doubt in Fury's mind of who had come to visit him. Tony Stark sauntered into the room like he owned the place with a slender girl on his arm that the Director didn't recognize. It definitely was not Anne. His raven hair was tousled messily, bangs hanging haphazard over a pair of dark aviators. He was wearing black slacks and a waistcoat, with a crimson colored tie, and the arrogant smile plastered across his face rubbed Fury the wrong way. He frowned. "I take it your wife knows you've taken up with some curly haired harlot?"

Tony never missed a beat. "Try again, Nicky, I don't have a wife, never did." The Avenger turned his head to the side slightly, pecking the girl on the cheek with a smug smile. "Would you like to do the honors, Rachel? Seems only fitting the new girlfriend should usher in a new Fury-less era."

Rachel blushed, toying nervously with the hem of her dainty yellow sundress. She wasn't Tony's usual type, though she supposed that was why he'd hit on her. After everything Tony had been through recently, he needed a little different. The poor girl had no idea how she had gone from giving Tony Stark the coffee he had ordered at Starbucks several weeks ago to fucking him six ways to sunday. He had stumbled in drunk that morning, like he often did, and she had his usual order ready and waiting for him. But the way he had looked at her that morning was so strange...and she noticed immediately he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. It was the first and only time she had ever had a customer write their number on their coffee cup, hand it back to her, and walk out without their order. She blushed deeply at the memory, and was caught up in her thoughts as she felt Tony hand her a thick envelope. She plopped it down on Fury's desk numbly, and averted her gaze as the Director stared her down hard.

"What is this, Stark?" Fury attempted to hand the file back to Tony, but all he did was shoot Rachel a meaningful glance.

Rachel's face turned redder, uncomfortable as she stared hard at the immaculate floor. "He doesn't like to be handed things."

Tony's smirk only grew, gesturing toward the envelope lazily. "Open it and see for yourself. I've had a good, long talk with Rogers about your employment here at SHIELD. Peggy Carter and my father founded this organization, and that means Spangles and I are the ones with authorization to displace you. Pack your things, Nick. You are lucky we aren't having you put away on criminal charges. We want you out by noon."

Fury smacked the file angrily onto his desk and nearly knocked the table over as he jumped to his feet. "You can't do this! You have no jurisdiction--"

"I just did, and I do." And with that, Tony turned on his heel and tugged his new little plaything out into the lobby with him. Fury's hands trembled, unbridled rage boiling beneath his skin as he thumbed through the beige folder. They couldn't do this to him, they couldn't use his own SHIELD file to terminate his job, he  _was_ SHIELD. Fury let out a roar, shredding the documents with his bare fists and slinging his chair against the wall hard. This was not over. The Avengers had not heard the last of him, oh no, and if he had to take out the very team he built from the ground up to keep the world he loved safe? Then by the Gods, he intended to do it.  


	28. Parental Guidance Pt. II

Thor intercepted Loki in the foyer on the way to the hospital wing. His argument with Emily had taken longer than anticipated, and the ultrasound was already complete. Loki had an arm draped around Lanie's slender frame and an immensely proud look in his eyes. Both Thor and Emily exchanged small smiles with the other God.

"So, what's the news? Do we have Edith or Edward?" Emily asked, her heart warming at the genuinely love-stricken smile that broke across Loki's face. She had never seen him like that before, and it was absolutely adorable. Loki nudged Lanie playfully and squeezed her hand.

"Care to share our news, love?"

Lanie beamed. "Edith Kieran Lokidottir is expected January ninth."

Emily thought that was funny, since she was relatively certain she and Thor had conceived in January. She marveled at the thought for a moment, realizing that she would be a mother to Thor's children well before she had known him for a year. The idea made her nauseas, and she grabbed on to Thor's arm to steady herself. "January? Wow...what a uh, one year anniversary present  _that_ will be, right?"

Loki snorted. "We did meet on a cold, unforgiving January evening, didn't we?"

"If by meet, you mean you collapsed into my arms? Then yes." Lanie admitted with a giggle. Loki's smirk only grew and he pulled her against his chest, tickling her lightly under her arms. He chuckled as she squirmed, her gentle laughter breathing life into him.

"Oh I remember. A tiny angel put me in her bed for the night and I've been  _smitten_ ever since."

She rolled her eyes at him and Emily pretended to gag herself at the overdramatic display of affection. "Loki, do you always have to be this extra?"

Loki's brows furrowed with purplexion, unsure of what she meant, and Thor cleared his throat loudly. "Might I remind everyone that we have someplace to be."

Loki and Lanie both shot each other confused glances and Emily looked at the floor sheepishly. She wasn't sure how to tell them that she had sent word to both sets of parents that they were to meet at her family's restaurant to discuss why they had been absent for so many months. She was half scared that Lanie was going to be angry with her for the first time in their eleven year friendship, and she fiddled with her fingers nervously. "Um, yeah...about that. We all are going back to Midgard to meet with our parents."

Loki could feel Lanie's body tense, and knowing good and well that she didn't have the best relationship with her family in the world, he grimaced deeply. "Should she not have been asked first?"

Emily huffed. "You can blame Thor for that, he didn't want to go without  _you_."

Loki shot Thor a death glare, while a strange and distant laugh floated from Lanie's lungs. She sounded hysterical. "Uh...I'm um...medically not supposed to put myself in temperatures above seventy degrees. So, it is within the best interest of my...little blue daughter...if I stay here."

Emily put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently and waiting for Lanie to quit being a baby. "We will be inside. The July weather isn't going to cook Edith inside a perfectly air-conditioned restaurant. Your family is worried sick about you, Lanie. Especially Niall."

Lanie sighed heavily at the mention of her brother, whom she loved and missed dearly. It wasn't Niall's fault that she didn't like to go home, or that she'd been whisked away by an Asgardian prince. She knew she had a lot to answer for, and she shuffled in Loki's arms nervously. "Fine. But if I get yelled at, Thor is getting kicked under the table."

"If you get yelled at, Thor is getting more than a kick." Loki mumbled, though he was weary of the expression Emily was shooting him from underneath her eyelashes. He hated it when she looked at him like that...like she was gonna jab an icicle in his eye socket.

"We are going, and no one is getting kicked but  _me._ " Emily muttered uncomfortably as the twins kicked her hard in her bladder. Little William and Oliver, who had been named after the very family Emily was itching to see, had been growing so rapidly, and were so  _strong_ for babies at their gestation. Frigga had assured her it was due to their Asgardian heritage, that they would be larger, and stronger than the sort of child Emily would give birth to had she been with another human being.

Thor was supposed to be monitoring the effect of the children's growth on their human mother, who was not anywhere as durable as the average Asgardian woman. They knew she would deliver early, and likely earlier than was even expected of a twin pregnancy, and he scowled slightly as a large hand moved to cup her stomach. "Emmie, darling, are they--"

"I'm fine, Thor, please, can we just go?" She begged, tired of all this back and forth. She really just wanted to get this over with...her father was  _not_ going to be happy. Thor only nodded, kissing her temple and calling for Heimdall, despite the anxious looks he received from his brother and Lanie.

When the bifrost opened, they found themselves staring at BTM's double doors for the first time in six months. Lanie smiled at the sidewalk, pretending not to notice as Loki's expression melted into a coy smirk. Who'd have thought a hunk of concrete would throw the whole course of their lives completely out of balance. The couple let Emily and Thor walk ahead since this was their grand idea, and Loki took Lanie by the hand in a show of solidarity. They were in this mess together, and he wasn't going to let her take all of the blame for her little disappearing act.

Loki found himself wishing, as he crossed the restaurant's threshold, that Emily had laid out some ground rules. What was off limits with the family? Was he allowed to talk and act as if he were from Asgard? He doubted it, and he quickly cast an illusion on both Thor and himself, changing them from the armor of their homeland into something more...comfortable? He glanced down at his cleanly pressed black suit, mind working quickly to piece together a little Midgardian backstory. What was he? Policeman? Lawyer? Ventriloquist was sure to get some laughs, right? He grinned, amused by his own thoughts, though they were interrupted by the collective gasp the room took when the four of them walked inside the room reserved for family.

Both families eyes seemed to fixate on Emily, who was heaviest with child, and Lanie immediately felt guilty. Lanie had an obvious bump, but it was easier concealed than six months with multiples. Emily swallowed hard, taking a seat beside Thor at the table, and silently gesturing for Loki and Lanie to follow suit. Her eyes scanned the faces in the room, assessing for a moment who had bothered to show up. She saw Calvin Fenton and Niall Fenton, Lanie's father and brother, and her own brother, Liam, was there with his wife Araceli and their two children. Her father was nowhere to be found, and she frowned deeply. "Um, hi Bubba. Where is dad?"

"It's been six months with no word from you and the first thing you have to say to me is, 'where is dad'? Seriously?"

Emily flinched slightly at his tone, though she knew she deserved it. "I'm sorry. I just...I hoped he would be here."

Liam took a deep, calming breath. "Yeah well, you know how that goes. Can't make the man do anything, not when he has his precious image to keep up. He is working with junior chef's right now, he couldn't be bothered. He told Araceli to take notes on whatever it is that was so important."

Emily's heart sank into her stomach, and Thor wrapped an arm around her lovingly. He whispered to her quietly, sweetly, and though she relaxed in comfort slightly, her brother only seemed to look more annoyed. "Would you care to introduce the grand protector over there, or would Lanie like to go first?"

This caught Calvin's attention, who glowered at his daughter. His face was beat red, and his beady eyes were squinted into hard, angry slits. Lanie swallowed hard, her throat closing in on her the longer he stared at her. "Yes, daughter. I would like to know why you haven't answered your phone in six goddamn months."

"U-Um...well, d-dad, this is Loki," She stammered, gesturing toward the God at her side. That answer didn't seem to suit the big man, who raised his voice to a deafening volume.

"I didn't ask about him! I asked why you couldn't call your family once in a while and let us know you weren't fucking dead, Alaine! Do you have any idea--"

Loki cut him off, and when he did Lanie shot him the most frightened look he had ever seen. She hadn't looked this panicked when Fury was holding her at gunpoint, but Loki smiled his most charming smile at her father as he extended his hand. "That would be my fault, sir, I am terribly sorry. I am Dr. Loki...Faust, I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon from Norway. I met Lanie during her internship at Stark Industries, I've been looking for pre-med students for hospital research. I didn't mean to keep her from home, but she took a very big opportunity, you see."

Loki's smile faltered when Calvin refused his hand, and the larger gentleman rose with a slow fury from his seat. "And tell me,  _doctor_ , did this research of yours have a clause stating my child could not contact me? Or that she would end up sleeping with you? That  _is_ afterall, what is happening here, isn't it? I'm not blind."

A cold smile replaced his polite expression, and Lanie's grip on his hand tightened considerably. Her grip begged him not to, but Loki's bitterness was spreading like a wildfire. He tilted his head to the side slowly, never once breaking eye contact with Calvin ask he spoke. "Sir, my relationship with your daughter is truly none of your concern. I do apologize that I have kept Lanie so busy, but frankly, sir, what happens in our sheets is between us."

Lanie went pale as a sheet and Thor jumped to her defense quickly. "What my brother means is merely that they called you here to tell you of their engagement and pregnancy. Lanie wants you in her daughters life, she did not come here to spread any ill will."

Calvin looked like he was about to hemorrhage, and his entire body went a dark purple. Niall put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt at calming him and suggested that they step outside, while Liam finally piped up once again. "His brother? You and Lanie are dating brothers? And you're both..."

Emily put her head in her hands. This is  _not_ how this was supposed to go. She wanted to cry. "Well...yeah. I didn't mean to keep it from you, I didn't even know I was pregnant until I was at the beginning of my second trimester. Then I got injured pretty badly, and Dr. Faust and Lanie were taking care of me. I came to tell you as soon as I could, honest."

Liam shook his head and sighed, though he didn't appear to be angry, not truly. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, eyeing Thor up and down for a long moment. "Well, Emmie...can we get it all in one go, is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"

Emily let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, relieved that he didn't appear to be mad, and shrugged her shoulders with a small delirious chuckle. "I mean, besides the fact that it's twins? Nah. But hey, I named one after you. William."

It was Liam's turn to put his head in his hands as he let out a long groan. "Oh my god, Emily. Dad is going to shit himself. You better stay in Norway or wherever the fuck you've been for a good while after this, you know that right? It is a  _blessing_ he didn't come to meet your..." He trailed off, unsure of what the giant blonde stranger called himself.

"Thor. His name is Thor. He's an...actor."

"Right, your...Thor. Well, take your blonde actor and get on out of here before Mr. Fenton bleeds out on the floor. I think he's gonna need some time." Liam thought for a moment before continuing, leaning in toward Emily and lowering his voice. "Is Lanie really marrying that doctor? He seems like a real douchebag."

Emily snorted. "He  _is_ a real douchebag, but a douchebag who loves her."

Liam rolled his eyes. "That's how it always goes."

Lanie was shakily holding on to Loki, who was having a hushed argument with her on the other side of the room about what was and was not appropriate to say to another person's father. There was no way Lanie's father would ever forgive Loki for that display at the table, though she was sure their relationship was destined to be rocky from the get go. Loki kissed the crook of Lanie's neck in apology, and shot Calvin a look from over his shoulder. The elder Fenton was screaming at Niall for attempting to calm him down, and Loki winked playfully at Lanie. "Let me fix it."

"Loki, no, please, you've done enough...Loki!"

Loki didn't listen, letting go of her to saunter over to Mr. Fenton with a thousand watt smile. "Mr. Fenton, I'd like to apologize for my--" Loki was interrupted when Calvin's fist made contact with his face, and while it didn't hurt, it did catch the god off guard. His dark blue eyes widened in surprise, and he couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, I deserved that. However, I--"

"No, you don't get to speak. My daughter is coming home with me. I don't care if she's pregnant or not, you are never to speak to her again, do you understand?" He barked, stupidly unafraid as Loki fought to bite back one of his more dark and twisty expressions. Loki forced a polite smile.

"It's a little late for that, she is my wife."

Calvin got in Loki's face, despite Niall's begging, and puffed his chest out against Loki's more slender build. "Not yet she isn't. And she won't be, I don't care if I have to drag her home myself."

A certain coldness sept into Loki's eyes, one that hadn't been there in a long time. He grabbed hold of Calvin's arm and pulled him close to his face, his voice a menacing and low growl. "You will allow her to be happy. She called you every day for the last six months, and you are elated to be having a granddaughter." Loki maintained hard eye contact as his power of persuasion washed over Lanie's father slowly, and Calvin's face became blank.

"I will allow her to be happy. She called me every day for the last six months, and I am elated to be having a granddaughter." He repeated, slowly coming back from his zombie-like state as Loki let him go with a satisfied smile.

"Glad to know we understand each other."

Niall had limped back several feet, in a confused horror, but the predatory look on Loki's face was enough to keep him silent. Lanie ran to his side, having seen Loki get a little physical with her father, and concern was plastered all over her face. "Please tell me you two aren't going to continue fighting like this, I can't take it!"

Calvin shook his head at his daughter, looking slightly perplexed as he let out a throaty laugh. "What are you going on about, Alaine? You know how much I love Loki, he's giving me a grandbaby!"

Loki wiggled his eyebrows at Lanie with a happy and satisfied smile as he pressed a victory kiss to the center of her forehead. "I told you I would fix it."    


	29. This is My Bargain You Mewling Quim

The next morning, Loki awoke in a playful, yet dreadfully guilty mood. Lanie had been a little upset about him using his powers on her father, and he wasn't an effective enough communicator to properly explain why he felt like he had been protecting her. He sighed, brushing his obsidian curls out of his face and onto his pillow as he braved a glance at her.

She was still sleeping, her body cold as ice beside him in her dark green lace nightgown. He smiled, eyes soft as he doted on her, and curled his body around her own. He kissed and nibbled on her neck gently, his fingers curling into her hair as she began to slowly stir. "Loki get off me."

Loki laughed, biting harder into her neck and burrowing into her, arms enveloping her whole body. "I will not." He rubbed his hands along her arms affectionately, leaving a trail of hickies from her jawbone to her collarbone. "Tell me you forgive me." He purred, a playful flicker dancing in his eyes as he finally got a laugh out of her, tickling her sides lightly. She wriggled in his arms, fighting to hold on to her annoyance, though she knew she couldn't. She'd never been mad at Loki in her life.

"Maybe I'll forgive you if you put that mouth of yours to good use." She relented with a giggle, earning a happy growl from her fiancé. Loki grabbed her leg, pulling her down the bed as he peppered one of her thighs with nips and kisses, tugging at her underwear with his free hand. He buried his face in her crotch, her hands flying into his curls as he worked his skilled tongue. She moaned his name softly, and she could feel him smile against her sex. He loved to pleasure her in a way that always surprised her, every time.

Loki didn't like it when Lanie was upset with him, and he was more than thankful that his playful, mischievous nature was enough to melt her unpleasant feelings. She loved him so much, he could see it in the way her body reacted to his touch, and in the way she wasn't even truly angry with him, and never was. He could never let her go.

Meanwhile, while Loki continued his assault on her gracious lady bits, Thor and Emily were having a tender moment of their own. Milo was sleeping at the foot of the bed, and Thor was currently braiding Emily's hair as she looked at the ultrasound Frigga had had printed for them a few weeks prior. She had been contemplating whether or not to mail it to her father, as a sort of olive branch, and Thor was gazing over her shoulder with a bright smile. "They're beautiful. I cannot tear my eyes from their tiny faces." He bent to kiss the top of Emily's head, his fingers weaving in and out of her hair so tenderly as he continued to braid. "You are going to be an excellent mother."

That warmed Emily's insides, hormone induced tears springing to her eyes as she reached behind her to caress one of Thor's arms. "I love you. I know I don't say it a lot...but I love you so much."

Thor tied the end of the braid and turned Emily around in his arms, kissing the tip of her nose. His eyes shone with joy, and it melted her in a way she couldn't articulate. "I love you too, my princess. It's almost the big day, you know. Will you dance with me at my brothers wedding?"

Emily blushed, hiding her face as she attempted to restrain the feminine giggles threatening to break from her throat. She wanted to say no, she hated dancing...but he was giving her those damn eyes. She pretended to think about it for a moment, a coy smirk twitching at the corners of her lips. "I don't know Thor..."

"Please." He begged gently, bringing one of her hands to his lips and kissing the back gently. She sighed dramatically, though the broad smile never once left her face.

"If I must."

He knew she was teasing, and he pumped his fist in the air slowly as he mouthed the word 'yes'. She burst into peals of laughter, rolling her grey eyes at him as he pushed her back into the pillows and climbed on top of her, mindful of her large belly. "On second thought..."

"Oh no, my lady, no taking it back now." His lips collided with her own passionately, trailing his hands down her body and admiring the softness of her dress. He smiled, imagining his beautiful girl among all the Asgardian wedding guests. There was going to be no one else like her, she was his one in a million. "What will you wear?" He asked gently, and Emily raised an eyebrow, unsure of what he meant.

"To the wedding?"

Thor didn't have time to answer as there was a loud knock on the door. "Thor, darling, you must go get your brother. We need to finalize a few things for the nuptials, but um...the servants said they heard unusual noises coming from Loki's quarters. I don't know who else to ask to interrupt an...intimate moment. Loki will be embarrassed if I do it."

Emily shot out of bed quicker than a pregnant woman should, a bright grin creeping up her face. "Oh, if that's the case, don't you worry ma'am. I'll go talk to Loki."

Back on Earth, Fury was pacing between a small circle of loyal ex-SHIELD operatives. The sceptre, which Fury had used the last of his security clearance to sneak off base, sat in the far corner of the room,and appeared to be glaring at him. He blinked rapidly at it, fighting to control his thoughts as his agents looked to him for leadership. His eye moved rapidly back and forth between the somber faces of the five men before him,though he gestured for Annabel to speak first.

"Director?Sir?"

"I would like for you to lead the discussion, Agent Klind." All the men exchanged confused glances, whispering her last name amongst themselves as a stony expression crossed Annabel's face. She might not have been married to Tony, but she had spent over a year pretending to be his wife...and most days, it had felt real.She loved him more than she would ever dare let on. She shot Fury a bitter glare for blowing her cover, though she supposed the cat was out of the bag now that Tony had figured it out. 

"It's anagram you idiots. I was undercover. Anne Rosalind Belk, rearrange the letters. My name is Annabel Rose Klind. Now that I'm no longer posing as aStark, you will not address me as Agent Stark. Now that that's clear, we will proceed." She took a breath, regaining her composure and masking any and all emotional pull her fake name had carried. "Listen up, Loki of Asgard has been visiting this planet off and on now for several months. We aren't sure what he is up to, but sources tell us Tony Stark has named the God an Avenger, and as we all know, even Captain Rogers is now conspiring with the alien invader. We are under the impression that he must be brainwashing them, and he must be stopped before they become to far gone to reconcile with. Those are our people he has taken, and the entirety of Earth is in very real danger. There is no telling what he is planning."Fury nodded in agreement, grasping hold of reality long enough to interject for a moment. He needed to make sure everyone was on the same page. 

"Loki is a fugitive from Asgardian prison, he has raped and impregnated Tony Stark's intern, who he then brainwashed into attacking me, and he has repeatedly abused the trust of his brother Thor to get closer to the Avengers. If we don't push through with Phase Two and the NMI and use those weapons to reign in our heroes, Loki is going to beunstoppable when he reattempts an assault on this realm."The room fell silent. All five agents exchanged solemn glances, unsure of what to say as an uneasy anxiety and panic swept across the room. They whispered amongst themselves for a moment, before a brave one in the back decided to pipe up.

"What are you suggesting that we do, Sir?"A frightening,borderline psychotic grin spread from one end of Fury's face to the other, and he nodded his head appreciatively at Annabel. 

"We launch an assault on Avengers Tower."

While Fury explained his master plan in great detail, Emily was standing outside of Lanie and Loki's bedroom, an embarrassed smile curling at the corners of her lips. Thor had trailed behind her, blushing red as his cape at the sounds that were coming from his brothers chambers.Frigga had not been kidding, apparently Lanie was a bit of a screamer. Loki's name was ricocheting off the walls like she was praising a God, though Thor supposed that was exactly what was going on in there, and Loki was more thanlikely living for it. 

Emily opened the door without warning, announcing her presence in a sing-songy voice. "Good morning world, and all who inhabit it!" She paused for a brief moment, doubling over in heavy laughter as she realized that Loki was completely unbothered by her presence. His face remained nuzzled lovingly in Lanie's sensitive areas,nails digging into her thighs as he worked to bring her to climax. 

Lanie, however, was mortified, and swore under her breath as she grabbed frantically for Loki's comforter and pulled it over his head."U-Um...Emmie...Thor...w-would you, mmm, get out!" She half screeched half moaned, unable to concentrate on her own horror as Loki continued to pleasure her. She threw her head back into her pillow, eyes rolling into the back of her head as she yanked Loki's hair hard and was overcome by her own orgasm. 

It was then and only then that Loki shimmied up her body, peaking out from underneath the covers to wiggle his eyebrows at Emily, who was practically crying at this point. He had sex hair, his black curls tangled and matted as he panted at the other couple with a smug expression. "You rang?"

"Not to ruin this um...fifty shades of mischief or anything but meet your mother in the mead hall at supper, she needs you to finalize some things for your wedding. Wrap up your breakfast and take it to go." Emily choked out, wheezing she was laughing so hard. 

"O-Oh god, Thor we have to go, if I laugh any harder I'm gonna start contracting."  

"Yes, please go." Lanie groaned, holding a pillow over her face in embarrassment as Loki snickered lightly to himself. 

"I finished my breakfast, thanks." He called out behind the other couple as they exited the room, and Lanie kicked him playfully from underneath the covers.

"Loki!"

Loki smiled, ripping the pillow from her hands and pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. He gave her his best puppy eyes and pulled her closer against his body. "What? They're family. Might as well get used to it. Now, up and at 'em my love, we apparently have work to do."Loki kissed her once more and slid off of the bed, earning a slight pout from his fiancée.

"Fine, but I get to reciprocate when we get back."

Loki smirked, more than liking the idea of that, though he didn't say so as he opened their closet to pick out his armor for the day. He eyed Lanie's side of the closet thoughtfully for a moment before responding. "Has mother shown you the dress yet? I have not been allowed to see it, though I know she keeps it in her quarters. I am...more than a little excited to see you in it." He admitted quietly, stealing a glance at her from underneath his long eyelashes. 

Lanie blushed softly, hiding her smile from him as she slapped his rear forcefully, cupping a handful of the God's ass and giving it a squeeze. She took his momentary shock as an opportunity to reach around and kiss him hard, giggling and pulling an outfit of her own from the wardrobe. "Don't worry about my dress. That was for earlier." 

She strutted off toward her side of the bed to dress herself, sashaying her hips provocatively as she did so, and Loki completely and utterly failed to hide his growing arousal. Punishment indeed,he thought to himself, though he couldn't keep the happy expression from spreading across his features. At this rate, he ought to piss her off more often.


	30. The Princess Bride

When Lanie woke the morning of the wedding, she woke alone for the first time since Loki had come into her life. She rolled onto her side, reaching for his side of the bed and burrowing her nose into his sheets. They smelled like him, and her heart fluttered happily in her chest. Today was the day...she couldn't believe it. She was no longer to be Alaine Juliet Fenton. That woman wouldn't exist anymore. Thor and Frigga both had been buttering Odin up for weeks, and he had finally agreed to allow Lanie to take the patronymic "Odindottir" upon becoming his daughter-in-law, because they knew that Midgardian custom dictated taking a family name, and it would mean a lot to Lanie to feel like she was part of the pack. "Alaine Juliet Odindottir...Alaine Juliet, daughter of Odin." She whispered to herself, unable to comprehend what she was hearing with her own ears. She was about to become daughter to the Allfather, princess of Asgard, wife of the God of Mischief. It was so surreal, like she was trapped in the best dream of her entire life and couldn't wake up. She was marveling at her luck, and how quickly everything had progressed, when her best friend walked in and blinded her with the overhead light.

“Rise and shine bitch, it’s time for someone’s wedding!” Emily called out happily, crawling in bed with her best friend and curling up at her side. Lanie laughed jovally, pressing a kiss to Emily’s growing tummy and taking her friend by the hand.

“Good morning to you too, crazy. Someone is excited!” William and Oliver kicked Lanie gently and it was all she could do to not tear up. She was so ready to meet her little nephews, they were going to be perfect.

Emily snickered. “William and Oliver are _always_ excited, they just want cake.”

“Oh, is that all? Well I’m sure Grandma Frigga has promised cake, so they ought to live.”

The pair giggled and horsed around for several moments, an intense exhilaration bouncing between them. There was a bittersweetness to the moment, and Emily’s eyes grew slightly damp as she lay there, looking on her person, who was having a baby and getting married and...well, finally growing up. Lanie noticed, pulling her friend into a bear hug as best as she physically could in both their states. “I’m not going anywhere, you know? I’m marrying someone who is literally more codependent on your boyfriend than you are.”

Emily snorted, picturing the horrible mourning the two brothers would go through if anyone tried to seperate them. “Well...you’re not wrong. I think all four of us are doomed to live in this palace together forever. Thor might slight his wrists if Loki leaves again.”

Lanie grinned. “Doomed is a strong word, I think it will be fun. You and I will basically be sisters, and Thor and Loki will...keep being Thor and Loki, and we will have Frigga to help us with the children. The only pitfall to any of that is…well...Odin.”

They rolled their eyes simultaneously at the mere mention of the Allfather, and Emily playfully scoffed at the other girl. “Oh but you’ll fit right in, _daughter of Odin_.”

“Hey! You’ll be his daughter one day too, shut up.”

Emily sighed dramatically and looked down at her gown, which was a dark maroon and draped off her shoulders. It had a long, Asgardian train, and she had matched the color almost exactly to Thor’s cape, which she knew he would be required to wear to the ceremony. “We need to get you into your dress before Frigga gets upset. Come on.”

Emily slid out of bed with a grunt and pulled Lanie to her feet, leading her excitedly to the eastern wing of the palace, where Frigga was waiting expectantly with a floor length lace gown with long sheer lace sleeves. She smiled happily at both women, shaking her head slowly. “You’re late.”

“Yes ma’am, I’m sorry.”

Frigga laughed gently, taking Lanie by the hand and kissing her on the cheek. “Be sorry for nothing this day. You are the Princess of Asgard now. And one day,” She said as she helped her step into her gown. “You will be queen.”

Lanie whipped around in Frigga’s arms, eyes wide in shock as Emily buttoned her dress up the back. “Queen? But...I don’t belong to Thor, I belong to Loki.”

Frigga nodded, reaching to take Lanie’s hair down from the messy bun she’d slept it and brush out the tangles. “Indeed you do belong to Loki, and Loki belongs to the throne. Thor has made it clear on more than one occasion to your father and I that he and Lady Emily wish to live out their lives peacefully, they want nothing to do with the crown. Whether he has realized it or not, that has made Odin very desperate. We don’t have another viable heir, Loki _must_ be coronated not long after he takes you as his wife.”

“My father…” Lanie repeated slowly, her brain fighting hard to process the information. She was stunned, and as Frigga curled her freshly brushed locks and pinned her cascading flower crown of white flowers into her hair, the older woman laughed once more.

“Yes, Odin is your father. Do not worry about whatever you’ve left in Midgard. Odin and I are your family now. I know that sounds harsh, and I know you likely have many that you love back in your home realm, but my husband has unfortunately made himself very clear. You are Asgardian from this day onward if this is to work. You understand that, yes? If you wish to marry my son, this is how it must be.”

Lanie swallowed hard, but nodded, and Emily wanted to say something in her defense, but she wasn’t sure what she could say or do that wouldn’t make the situation worse for her friend. She grimaced. “But, ma’am, and I mean no disrespect, but what is her family supposed to think when she doesn’t come home?”

Frigga shrugged, shooting Emily a bittersweet smile. “Tell them what you must, love. Perhaps she went into labor and had an aneurysm while pushing, there was nothing Loki could do. Anything that they will believe. You could tell them the truth, I suppose, but the likelihood of that going over well is slim.”

Lanie wiped a few stray tears from her face, though she didn’t know what else she had expected. Her life as already being lived separately from them in Asgard, she already never saw them. This was a long time coming. “Don’t tell them I’m dead. Surely I can sneak to see them every once and a while.”

“Don’t let Odin hear you say that.” Frigga scolded, though she didn’t exactly discourage it, and Emily gave her friend a knowing smile. Frigga wouldn’t say a word if Lanie snuck off, and they both knew it. Somehow everything was going to be fine. Lanie stood, now fully dressed and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked beautiful, and she tried to reign in her emotions enough to garner some happiness. Loki was going to die when he saw her. Emily handed her her bouquet of deep red roses, which had leaves that cascaded down the front to match her crown, and she hugged her tightly from behind.

“Let’s go out there and knock them dead.”

Lanie took a deep breath to steady herself and nodded, linking arms with Frigga, who was to give her away so to speak, and Emily brought up the rear, carrying Lanie’s long train. The wedding was to be held in the throne room, which Lanie had never been in before, and when the wide double doors were thrust open, the wind was very nearly knocked out of her.

The entire room was a thick, gleaming gold, and a massive throne was planted in the center, where Odin was firmly seated dressed head to toe in detailed Asgardian armor that was no less gold than everything that surrounded him. A row of armed soldiers stood at attention on both sides of the aisle, and while Thor stood tall and proud on one end of the long steps that lead up to his father’s chair, making flirtatious eyes at Emily from behind Lanie, Lanie’s eyes immediately met those of Loki, who stood on the opposite side of the staircase.

Loki was dressed in armor she had never seen before, very formal and polished. It too, was gold, though it glittered brighter than anything in the room, and his dark green cape was long, and flowed behind him delicately. His dark curls were tucked neatly behind his ears, though she could hardly see his hair at all, as atop his head sat a helmet with long, far reaching horns. He had never looked more regal to her than he did in that moment. He looked like a king.

Loki noticed her eyes on him immediately, and the bright smile that broke across his face could have lit the entire room. He smiled at the way her free hand cradled the underneath of her belly, where Edith was no doubt sleeping in spite of all the commotion, and his blue eyes were crinkled at the corners in her favorite way, the way they always did when his smile was genuine.

She tore her gaze from Loki for only a moment, watching curiously as the lights in the room dimmed slightly, giving the room a softer glow as Odin slowly rose from his seat. When she and Frigga finally reached the bottom of the stairs, it was to his wife that he spoke. “Today we gather in these hallowed halls to unite two souls as one. With whom does this child come and whose blessing accompanies her?”

Frigga squeezed Lanie’s hand in reassurance as she felt her flinch at the boom of Odin’s voice. “She comes with me, the Allmother, and all our family’s blessings.”

Odin nodded, though he never cracked a smile as he seemed to begrudgingly gesture for Loki to take his place at Lanie’s side. It did very little to dampen the couples spirits, however, as the moment Loki was at her side Lanie felt all the air leave her body. Her heart was beating too hard in her chest, but in the best way, and her stomach was full of butterflies. This was really happening, she was about to become his wife. Loki couldn’t keep his eyes off of her, and she knew that this wasn’t something he had ever pictured for himself. He was speechless.

 _You look so beautiful._ He mouthed, smirking at the gentle blush that crawled up her cheeks. They joined hands for the last time as separate people, and Loki’s thumbs caressed Lanie’s hands longingly. He was itching to be her husband, to be one with her, his body language was screaming it. She wanted so badly to melt into his touch, to kiss him like she had never kissed him before...but not yet. She had to control herself just a bit longer.

Odin cleared his throat loudly, breaking both of them from their thoughts as he began. “Do you, Loki, son of Odin and rightful heir to the throne of Asgard, and you, Alaine Juliet, heiress of Midgard, join us here of your own free will, to acknowledge the eternal bond shared between you?”

For a moment Loki looked as if he had been struck, not knowing how to react to the news that he was somehow now the “rightful heir”. He exchanged a brief look with Thor, who smiled at his little brother and nodded with a wink, confirming that he had stepped down. Loki’s eyes then met Lanie’s, and she smiled softly at him. There was a warmth behind her smile, and he reached to delicately caress the side of her face. _She was going to be his queen._ He hadn’t thought it possible.

“I do.” They both swore.

“I, Loki, promise you, Lanie, that I will be your husband from this day forward. To love and respect you, to support and to hold you, to make you laugh and to be there when you cry, to softly kiss you when you are hurting and to be your companion and your friend on this journey that we now make together.” Loki vowed gently, passion spilling into his words as he jumped the gun on Odin, who hadn’t asked for the vows yet. Thor laughed off to the side, and Odin looked annoyed, but Loki too far lost in his bride to care. He didn’t hear anything around him; the only person in that room with him was her.

Lanie didn’t wait for Odin to respond, biting back tears as she struggled with her words. “I, Alaine, promise you, Loki, that I will be your wife from this day forward. I promise you my unconditional love, tenderness, and undying devotion, to not ask you to be more than you are, and to love you for being you until my dying breath and after.”

When she was finished, Odin pulled out a thick blue cored and wrapped it neatly around the couples entwined hands. He sighed. “Here before witnesses, Loki and Alaine have sworn their vows to each other. With this cord I bind them to these vows, however, the binding shalt not be tied, so neither partner is restricted by the other. I may be the Allfather, but the only true enforcement of love, is the will to love. Heart to thee, born to thee, always and forever.”

Odin then took Loki and Lanie’s cord bound hands and slowly lead them out of the room and onto a large balcony, which overlooked streets full of eager Asgardian citizens. The people screamed and cheered, and Odin put on his nicest fake smile, gesturing grandly as he pretended that he was actually happy to be there. “I present before you all, Prince Loki and Princess Alaine, the future king and queen of Asgard.” He handed them each their rings, which they exchanged before the crowd, and Loki pulled Lanie against him.

“I love you.” He whispered, dipping her back and kissing her long in hard in front of the entire kingdom. Their kingdom. She blushed deeply at the screams of joy from below them, and giggled as he finally allowed her to come up for air.

“I love you too.”  


	31. Iðunn’s Apple

Loki and Lanie’s honeymoon was a six week long event, as Loki had been eager to get far away  from Asgard for a while to both enjoy his new wife, and to clear his mind. He and Lanie both had been shocked to learn that they would be taking the throne in place of Thor and Emily, and while it was something Loki had once desperately wanted, the thought terrified him now. He hadn’t been kidding when he had told Lanie they would be sitting ducks if they didn’t live their lives on the run, and now? What were they supposed to do when they suddenly had a responsibility to the throne and the entire realm?

He tried not to dwell on it. He didn’t want to think about Thanos or what was going to happen to him and his wife and his baby when they were found. He didn’t want to think about the possibility that he could lose everything he had come to love in the blink of an eye--not when it had just been given to him. Loki was perfectly content and happy for the first time in his long life. He didn’t think he could handle it if it was taken from him now. All Loki wanted to think about was Lanie, and their little Edith. All he wanted to think about was the fact that this precious mortal was giving him a  _ family,  _ and what better place to think about that than Midgard?

The couple had been staying in Scotland, in a small cottage right off the bank of Loch Ness. Tonight was to be their last night, and while they both missed their family, they were sad to be going. Loki had chosen Scotland on a whim, because Lanie said she had never been there, and he had watched her fall in love with with moss colored water and chocolate sand. Lanie didn’t even like large bodies of water, hated the ocean on a grand scale, but something about Loch Ness was calling to her. The locals had warned against swimming in the loch, which maintained temperatures of five degrees celsius year round, but that was the perfect temperature for Lanie’s ever growing pregnant body, that required more and more cold as it progressed in gestation. 

That was where they were that night, having swam out to the middle of the loch. Loki was back in his Jotun form, ice cold water feeling pleasant against his skin as he bucked up into his new wife, who was wrapped around him for dear life. She threw her head back in a loud moan, giving him prime access as his mouth attacked and ravaged her neck. They had been making love for hours, and while Lanie grew tired, she didn’t want the moment to end. 

She fought her orgasm, yet there was little she could do to stop it as it ripped through her. Her nails dug into his back as he blew his load inside of her, a deep and guttural growl falling from his lips as he continued to lovingly suck on and mark her flesh. She very suddenly gasped as she felt Edith stir within her for the first time and Loki stilled his movements immediately. He let go of her neck, his breathing ragged as his hands grabbed hold of her stomach and he attempted to compose himself. “Did she just…”

There was another small kick at the sound of Loki’s voice, and Lanie shook her head in disbelief. “Yeah, she did.” 

Loki attempted to plant a firm kiss to her belly, though it was difficult to do in the water, and Lanie laughed at him gently as he threaded her fingers through his mass of wet hair. She couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her life with him, and she could see it in his eyes that he was thinking about that forever. He was thinking about their wedding gift.  “I want you to eat it.” He proclaimed softly. “Not just for me, but for Edie. She deserves her mother.” 

Lanie sighed, kissing the center of Loki’s forehead with a small smile. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to grow old with Loki, she was simply...apprehensive about growing old so slowly that everyone else in her life would die without her. She knew part of the reason their Honeymoon had lasted this long was because of Loki’s fears, but she also knew it was because he wanted to make sure he could talk her into using Odin and Frigga’s wedding present to the happy couple. 

There was a goddess who lived in Asgard, whom Lanie had never seen, by the name of I ðunn.  I ðunn was an Asgardian tasked with growing and harvesting the golden apple trees that were planted in droves outside the palace gates; trees by which the most important fruit of their culture was borne. Apples produced of this tree were the secret to the long lives of the Asgardian gods, and without them, a mere mortal lifespan would render all of Asgard’s magic unable to save the very gods it served. Lanie had seen the trees. They were abundant. She knew it was nothing to Odin and Frigga to gift her with this life; this was more a courtesy to Loki, who didn’t want to lose her. But to Lanie, there was nothing ordinary about such a gift, and what costs were it to come with? Was spending 5,000 years with the love of her life worth watching her Midgardian friends and family die?

“Loki...you know I want to spend the rest of your life with you. It’s just...I’m...frightened.” She admitted. He nuzzled into her sweetly, humming in thought as he did so.

“You’ve nothing to be frightened of. I know you will miss those who will die natural deaths. But my darling, imagine it reversed. Your life is but a mere heartbeat compared to mine. It is a mere heartbeat to  _ Edith _ ’s life. One hundred years goes by like nothing, and one day...one day I will wake up and you will be cold beside me, hair white and chest still. Our daughter will knock on our door, wondering why her ailing mother has not gotten up to take her medicine with her tea that morning. Why the kettle wasn’t on, why breakfast was unmade. She will be a baby still by Asgardian standards, and you will be gone. How do I move forward after that? How do I live without you? How do I look my baby in her eyes and tell her mommy isn’t waking up? Lanie I...I can’t.” He gripped her tighter against him, leaning in to bite her bottom lip tenderly, his scarlet eyes begging her to agree. “Should you be taken from me, either by distance or by time, then my heart would cease to beat and I would die.”

That last sentence was so quiet she scarce was sure she heard it. But his expression was pleading, and as she felt her daughter’s tiny feet against her side once more, her grasp on all the reasons she had had for saying no were slipping further away. She knew Loki was right, there was not truly a choice to make. She just didn’t know why it was a choice she had to be happy in making. Her smile was delicate and bittersweet, but a smile nonetheless, and Loki knew that behind it was a breadth of love more vast than anything that could stand in their way. He knew her answer before she spoke it, and he grinned back at her with everything that he was.

“You gave me the six weeks that I asked for, and my mind was made up before we came out tonight. It just isn’t a choice that I make lightly.” She explained, watching Loki with a doting expression as he scooped her into his long arms to begin swimming back to the loch’s shore. 

“And?” 

She could hear the blatant happiness in his voice, the victory. It made her feel warm inside, and she curled up contentedly against his muscular chest. Loki being happy was a new concept, and it was all she had ever wanted for him. She would do anything to make sure he never lost sight of it again. “Of course I will eat it.” 

Emily and Thor, however, were enjoying a candle-lit “second dinner” under the veranda at Avengers Tower in Midgard. The pair had been spending time with Tony, who was readying himself to turn on his finished reverse NMI any day now. It had given Emily a week or two to attempt to see her father, and Thor was always happy to be in Midgard and away from the palace. Despite the midnight hour, Emily had been having an intense craving for spaghetti all night, and it was so beautiful out, Thor wanted to make her feel special. 

He admired her glow in the light of the candles, thirty-two weeks pregnant and just as beautiful and graceful as the night they had met. She had been begging to go outside all day, but she had been feeling a weird pressure in her pelvis, and Thor hadn’t let her out of the bed since she had woken. He knew she was happy to finally get some air. “I’m sorry I kept you bedridden, sweetness. I hope I did not ruin your day.”

Emily reached to tenderly tuck tufts of blonde hair behind her lovers ears and shook her head at him with a playful smile. “No, Thor. I think it’s sweet how you fret over the boys. I know you just have their best interests in mind.” 

Thor grinned, grabbing a fork and twirling noodles around it as he attempted to get Emily to take a bite. She began to giggle, not wanting to accept his feeding her, though there was little she could do to stop him. “Well I  _ am _ their father.” 

Emily playfully swatted his hand away, nearly choking as she struggled to wiggle out of his reach. “Thor stop it. You are  _ their  _ father not mine, I can feed myself.” 

Thor dropped the fork with a pout, though it was entirely playful, and he rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him. She grunted as she straddled him, hands cradling her large belly in slight discomfort. “Not so worried about pelvic pressure now, I assume?”

Thor chuckled. “Does this hurt?” 

Emily leaned down, smirking against his lips as their mouths melted together. His hands cupped her ass, groping and massaging it as her tongue slipped inside his mouth. She tugged lightly on his braids with one hand as she attempted to cradle her stomach with the other. “It’s bearable. For you.” She nuzzled against his neck, nipping at his beard. “My thunder god.”

She was feeding his ego and she knew it, but Thor was eating out of the palm of her hand and she was living for it. He grunted in pleasure at her words and his eyes brightened. “Damn right I am.”

Emily shifted uncomfortably on top of Thor, unable to quite catch her breath as she attempted to roll off him. Thor was visibly disappointed, but he didn’t stop her, one of his platinum eyebrows rising in slight concern as he realized she had gone pale. “How do you fare, my love?” He reached to very delicately cup her abdomen and she winced.

“I’m fine don’t worry. The position was just getting to be a little much.”

Thor accepted this explanation with little thought, and hopped to his feet, extending his hand for Emily to take. It was getting very late anyway, and what little food was left had gone cold. He needed to get his princess to bed. Emily blinked at his hand for a moment, not wanting to take it until she was sure she could move. Her stomach felt tight, and she didn’t want to press her luck. She took a deep breath, reaching for his hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet slowly.

Emily felt a small gush, her grey eyes widening and her breath hitching in the back of her throat as it dawned on her that she had fucked up…they had both  _ fucked up _ . Thor’s eyebrows knitted together as he drank in her expression and he pulled her close against his body. “Emmie? Quit acting so strangely, you’ll scare me half to death.”

She couldn’t tell if she wanted to snicker at him or burst into tears, gripping his strong arms roughly as a contraction suddenly tore through her for the first time. “Thor shut up, I think my water just broke.”


	32. Arrival

Loki delicately tousled Lanie's hair as he towel dried it for her, watching her as she eyed the shiny apple in her hands. She cradled it, heart thumping in her chest for reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on. She had nothing to be afraid of, Loki had promised her that a thousand times over, but her nerves were absolutely shot. So much about her life had changed in a very short amount of time, and while most of it didn't bother her, she was constantly spiritually shaken.

Lanie was supposed to be a good Mormon girl. She was supposed to save her virginity for marriage, she was supposed to marry in the Temple and be sealed to her husband, she was supposed to bare children that would be sealed to them. She was supposed to die and go be with Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom. That was the life that had been planned for her. Now she was...she was unrecognizable to even herself by those standards.

"Lanie," He sighed, wrapping his arms around her from behind and resting his chin atop her head. "You don't have to if you truly do not want it."

She shook her head. "I want it. I want to spend thousands of years by your side, I want to give you more children than you know what to do with and watch them grow for centuries."

Loki smiled gently and his arms tightened around her. "But?"

"But when I finally do die...do you think I will be sent to Outer Darkness?"

Loki's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"Outer Darkness. That is what my faith refers to Hell as." She repeated, earning a harsh scoff from her husband.

"No one is sending my Queen anywhere but Valhalla. When you take your final breath and depart from here to journey across the bifrost one last time, it will be the All Fathers who meet you there, and there you will wait for me. I will send you off in the water, as is tradition, and you will return to stardust, as we all do. Do not worry about this other god. When is the last time you have worshipped him?" Loki craned his long body around her, reaching to kiss the soft flesh of her neck and breathe in her sweet scent. He smirked against her, nibbling playfully as he left his mark here and there. "You are not Mormon. Not any longer. You are a Pagan, and it is to us and our Gods that you hail. Alright?"

Lanie thought on this for a long while, humming to herself as she did so. He wasn't wrong. It had been so long since she had seen a Sacrament meeting, or participated in church activities. She had spent the last seven months having premarital sex, becoming pregnant out of wedlock, praying to gods that were not her own, and breaking the alcohol and tea rules with every blaspheming breath. She might as well have had her name stricken from official church records in Utah. Part of that she found to be exhilarating. This was the most freedom she'd been allowed in her entire life, and she was so unbelievably happy. But another part of her, the part experiencing spiritual death, worried that without a temple sealing she would be unable to be with Loki in Heaven if he was wrong. She sighed deeply. She supposed she was just going to have to wait 5,000 years and find out. "Alright."

Lanie bit into the apple, a strange calmness soothing her anxiety as it washed over her entire body. The more bites she swallowed the stranger she felt, and her veins briefly glowed a bright gold with every bit she consumed. Loki was observing with an excited and loving gaze, eyes alight with curiosity, as he had never witnessed a Midgardian partake of the sacred fruit. It was almost as if he could feel himself becoming more and more connected with her, and he wasn't sure if it was real or just his imagination. He swore under his breath at the sound of Lanie's phone ringing, which snapped them both out of their little moment. "No, love, you eat. I will get it."

Loki hated the confounded telephone. It rang off the hook constantly it seemed every time they were in Midgard. He did not fully understand why it was necessary to speak to someone with a piece of technology when you could just do so in person. It was impersonal and lazy. He grabbed for the hunk of metal and typed in the passcode, rolling his eyes at the sentimental series of numbers. 7-7-13 was their wedding anniversary. He had married such a sappy woman...he had married a Thor. He laughed at the thought as he slid to unlock and answer the phone, though his laughter sputtered off at the sound of the voice on the other end of the receiver.

"Loki, I need you and Alaine to meet me urgently at Bellevue Hospital Center in Midtown, near the tower....uh, Emily has fallen into--" Thor was cut off, and Loki could hear rustling, as if someone was wrestling him for the phone.

"Odinson you get your ass back here with my best friend  _now_! I am.... _ugh_...pissing a knife! Something is wrong, the l-labor feels wrong."

Loki's eyebrows knitted together in concern and counted the weeks on his fingers. "It's too early, you're not due until Oct--"

"You think I don't know that?! I didn't get to decide when my water broke!" She screeched, hanging up in a huff as she muttered to herself about how fucking stupid Asgardian men were.

Loki glanced over at Lanie, who was now staring at him with concern plastered to her delicate features. He dropped her phone onto the bed and grabbed for her hand, pressing a tender kiss to her palm. "Finish your apple, darling. We need to leave immediately."

Thor was pacing back and forth in a small room in labor and delivery while the nurse checked Emily's vitals and cervix. Emily was watching the woman work closely, attempting to discern by her body language whether or not she should be frightened. She knew the prognosis couldn't be good, she could still feel a lot of liquid oozing from her body, and her water had broken thirty minutes ago. She could feel something slimy presenting between her legs and she shot the nurse a panicked glance. "What...what is that? I feel something...weird...are my babies okay?" The nurse didn't answer for a long while, poking and prodding between Emily's legs. Emily's eyes wandered to Thor, who hadn't stopped pacing since the moment they had been admitted.

"Would you stop doing that?" She snapped, eyes filling with tears at the worry flooding her entire being. "You're really freaking me out." Thor closed his eyes and sighed, walking over to Emily's bedside and taking her by the hand.

"I apologize my love. I'm just concerned..." He paused, shooting a look toward the nurse. "Will you please answer my girlfriend? If you do not I will check her myself."

Emily slapped Thor hard on the chest and shook her head wildly at him. "You will do no such thing! I don't want you to see me like that down there, you put that in your mouth sometimes." She said with a hysterical whine, starling the nurse, whose nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Okay...uh, the doctor will be with you shortly. You are experiencing an overt umbilical cord prolapse, which often happens when your water breaks before the baby is in proper birthing position. What this means is, Baby B's umbilical cord is protruding through your cervix and out of your body. You're going to require an emergency C-Section." The nurse explained nonchalantly, marking a few things on Emily's medical chart before exiting the room without another word.

Emily's face had gone white as a sheet and she looked up at Thor with a horror stricken expression. "Baby B is Oliver...he's...his....oh my god this can't be happening, he could  _suffocate_. I need to get him out now, n-no C-Section, I can push, I can--"

Thor shushed her, petting her hair soothingly as he whispered sweet nothings in her ear and placed a large hand on her swollen belly for possibly the last time. "Hush, princess. You're alright. They will be fine, I promise."

Emily's lips quivered and she choked on her tears, leaning against Thor and allowing him to run his fingers through her hair. "Don't promise, you don't know...what if they're not?"

Thor shushed her once more, relief washing over his body as Lanie and Loki rushed inside the room. Lanie was a mess, tears running down her cheeks as she all but ran to Emily, grabbing the hand that Thor wasn't holding and squeezing it tight. "Are you alright? Are the boys alright?"

Emily swallowed hard. "You're a med student right? Tell me I can push, please...tell me I can just get them out myself." She sounded so broken and pitiful, and the fear etched into her face was making Lanie's heart pound in her ears. She walked to the foot of the bed to peak for her, her stomach lurching as she realized what was going on. She was suddenly a little faint, and Loki wrapped his arms around her waist quickly. "Lanie? Are you too hot? Do I need to--"

Lanie shook her head. "N-No...It's just uh...Emmie, sweetie, if you try to push you're going to do a lot more damage than not. It's best just to let the doctors fix it. Okay?"

Emily had known that would be the answer, but she still didn't want to hear it, and she broke into a heavy sob. She didn't know what she was going to do if this went south, everything always went south for her, she had the worst luck in all the nine realms. "They're gonna die." She croaked out, earning a flinch from Thor and an "oh, honey" from Lanie, who fought her wobbly legs to walk back to Emily's bedside.

"No one is going to die. You're going to be perfectly fine. I promise."

"There are those promises again." Emily sighed with a sniffle, trying to calm herself as the doctor finally walked into the room. He checked between her legs quickly, glancing at her charts and signing off on the surgery.

"Well, Miss Ramsay, looks like we are having some babies tonight. Ought to be a short procedure, and I don't want you to worry, we have a world renowned Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, your sons are going to be in excellent hands."

Thor beamed, pulling Emily into an urgent kiss and petting her hair gently. "See? We aren't going to let anything happen to you."

The doctor nodded, asking for Thor to follow the nurse and get ready to scrub in, they had to wheel Emily's bed down into the OR. Lanie's iron grip on Emily's hand didn't lessen and the doctor shot her a look. "Ma'am..."

Lanie looked frantically at Loki, who very gently pulled her away from her best friend. Lanie trembled, sucking air into the back of her lungs dramatically as Loki tugged her into the waiting room. "Hush, love. She's fine, it's fine. You can't be her savior, you need to let the doctor do his job." Lanie whipped around like she was going to slap him, and part of her wanted to, but she merely broke down, and Loki cradled her against his chest. "It will be a matter of minutes, and she will be out of surgery with healthy heirs. Calm yourself. Breathe. If not for me then for Edith."

Lanie fought to steady her breathing, allowing Loki to sway her into a more soothed state. He pressed kisses into her hair, thanking her, and held her like that for several moments. He started to wonder how much more he could handle of domestic life. He was so happy, and yet, at the same time, there was more at stake here than he had initially realized. Thanos and Fury both were still threats, and now that he had gotten a taste of childbirth, he was no longer convinced that life as a husband and father was going to be all sunshine and rainbows either. If Lanie went into preterm labor, if her life was put at even more risk because he was too lazy to use a condom, he would just be done. Life was too hard. He missed the days when things were simple, and the only thing he had to worry about was why his older brother's friends didn't like to play with him, or why Odin treated him differently. He took a long, deep breath, and rocked his wife in his arms slowly, nuzzling his face into her hair. He didn't know how much longer he would truly get to keep her, so for now, he was going to drink in every ounce of her perfection that he was blessed with while he still could.


	33. Arrival Pt. II

August 18th at 2:30 in the morning, William Fenris Thorson was brought into the world. He weighed just under six and a half pounds and was nineteen inches long. Emily and Thor couldn't see much over the sheet that had been placed between them and the surgical team, but when their son was lifted out they could see tufts of strawberry blonde hair. Tears flooded Emily's eyes, and she wanted to hold him so badly, but he was premature, and they whisked him away to make sure he wasn't having any issues breathing on his own.

"Thor..."

Thor clasped his hands around hers tightly, smiling through his own tears, though she couldn't see through the mask the doctors had made him wear. "He's just fine my love, he's Asgardian. I'm sure he was more than ready for his entrance into the world."

Emily wasn't so sure, and she didn't know why, but there was a certain level of guilt gnawing at her insides. She should have stayed in bed, she should have made sure they stayed in for as long as she could physically withstand. Part of her knew that was irrational thinking, all she had done was walk to the porch, but her hormones were all over the place. She was pulled from these thoughts when she heard another tiny little cry, and the doctor held up a slightly smaller strawberry blonde baby. Oliver Kylan Thorson, August 18th, 2:35 in the morning, four and a quarter pounds and seventeen inches long. They whisked him away too, and for a moment, Emily about had a panic attack, until a nurse brought little William back into the room swaddled in a light blue blanket.

"He's doing extremely well, ma'am. Your son is a fighter, he's much larger than he should have been measuring at this age, and he doesn't appear to be having any respiratory issues. We are going to keep him for a night or two in the NICU with his brother for monitoring and to make sure the twins don't experience any separation anxiety, but other than that Mr. William is good to go." She smiled warmly and handed William to Emily, who immediately snuggled him up to her face.

"You mean he's...he's healthy?"

"Yes, ma'am. Perfectly happy, healthy little boy." She said as she turned to go assist the other medical professionals with Oliver.

Thor peeked around the sheet, eyes scanning the room for any signs of Oliver, while his large hands immediately flew into Emily's hair. She wept lightly, happy tears dropping onto their sons face as she rocked him in her arms like he was the most invaluable thing she had ever laid her eyes on. Thor's eyes darted down to meet Emily's own, bliss melting off of him as she struggled to find the right words. "Thor I...he's..."

"I know my love. Both our sons are treasures. Everything we could have wanted." He admitted softly, eyes glued to William's tiny face as he cooed softly in his mother's arms. Emily shook her head.

"Marry me."

It was a whisper, but Thor's hair stood straight on end, and he had to shake his head a few times, as if to clear it. "Excuse me?" He knew Emily Ramsay, she must have been high on whatever pain meds the doctor had given her. She sniffled, gripping Thor's hand, though her eyes never once left her son. She was so in love with their family. She thought she didn't know what she wanted. She thought she was content where they were, thought they had already moved fast enough. But looking at William's face for the first time, hearing him cry...feeling him wriggle in her arms. There was nothing in the world like it, and she felt a deep need tugging at her insides, a need to be a whole family for this beautiful child. She wanted to be married to his father, she wanted Loki to be her brother, she wanted Lanie and Frigga, and even Odin. She wanted to belong. There was no one she would ever love the way she loved Thor.

"I mean, if you don't want to..."

Thor scoffed, just as she knew he would, and crushed his lips against her own hard. Emily could feel the desperation in his kiss, the passion. She'd just wrecked his entire world in the best way imaginable, and he couldn't contain the emotion bleeding from his body. He smiled with the whole of his body language, as if the only force in all the nine realms keeping him alive was the love in Emily's heart. "It would be my sincerest honor to be your husband." He said, kissing her hand and nuzzling into her touch, even as she rolled her eyes at his dramatic proclamation.

Emily grinned. "Good, now go get our other son, please. I want to see him."

In the waiting room, Lanie was curled up in Loki's lap. His nose was buried in her curls, breathing in her scent as she slept anxiously in his arms. He had finally gotten her to calm, if only a little, and his hands were resting lovingly on her small bump. Edith was kicking his palms rhythmically every now and again, and it comforted Loki a great deal. He had fought to keep his mind off Thanos and Fury, instead wondering idly about the daughter nestled safely in his wife's womb. What would she be like? Would she resent him? Would they be close? Would she look like her mother? His mind had drifted into a sort of daydream, envisioning what it would be like to watch the love of his life sing his child to sleep at night...envisioning what it would feel like to have that sort of safety and domesticity. He needed it as if it were the air in his lungs, and he knew to lose either of them now would be to lose his will to live. He could not be separated from them. That was final.

"I love you." He whispered, continuing to rock her quietly in his arms. He could feel her body relaxing in his arms, his words settling her into a deeper, more comforted sleep. His lips twitched into a content smirk, pleased that the sound of his voice made her feel safe. His mind was made up. Loki had been thinking long and hard about his solution to his Thanos problem, and while he did not much fancy what he knew he must do, he cared more about protecting Lanie and Edith than he cared about protecting himself. As soon as he dealt with Fury, he was taking the fight to the Mad Titan himself. He was ending this. They'd be safe, they'd be a family. The three of them, always. Loki was hell bent on fighting for that future.

He was torn from these thoughts when a nurse cleared her throat loudly from the doorway adjacent to where Loki was seated. He was reluctant to tear his eyes away from his wife, who was now sleeping so soundly, and he sighed. "Yes?" His voice was low, as not to wake her, and the nurse smiled kindly in their direction.

"Your sister-in-law is out of surgery now and doing just fine, should you like to see her. She is recovering in room 515, whenever you're ready."

Loki nodded and shifted in his seat as gently as possible, rubbing Lanie's arms and whispering soothingly in her ears. "Kitten? I need you to wake, our nephews have arrived." Her chocolate eyes fluttered, and he smiled against the crook of her neck as she spoke.

"Yes, my king."

He chuckled. "Do you mock me, Fair One?"

She smirked. "Me? Mock my dashing husband? Never." Her giggle soothed his frayed nerves and he gave her a gentle nudge, sliding his fingers between her own firmly.

"Come, love. Let us see our family." His blue eyes lingered on the sway of her hips as she slid from his lap, the swell of her sides indicating her pregnancy even from behind. It was arousing to him, to watch her grow round with his child, and he fought the urge to pull her against him and cradle his unborn baby. They walked hand-in-hand down the long stark white corridor that led to room 515, and excitement rose in Lanie's chest with every step. She knew those babies were going to be perfect, she couldn't wait to see them.

When they walked through the open doorway, Emily was sitting up, one very small child latched onto her breast and the other, bigger child wiggling happily in his father's arms. Thor and Emily were not looking at one another, nor at their new company, eyes glued to their children. They seemed to glow, the four of them, and Lanie and Loki exchanged small smiles at the sight.

"Fatherhood suits you well, brother." Loki sauntered to the other Asgardian's side, clapping him on the back as his face split into a prideful grin. Thor's eyes looked up slowly from his cooing baby, and his crystal eyes were wide and wet. He looked at his little brother with more genuine affection than Loki had seen there since they were children, and it caught him off guard.

"Loki." It was all Thor could utter, but it was enough. Loki knew that Thor was big on family, and his new additions were drudging up some very old, very intense brotherly emotions. Thor had always thought the world of Loki, prior to more recent events in their family history. They had been so close as children, and here they were, coddling a new set of brothers. Loki prayed their bond never sever, especially with them being twins. He wanted better for Thor's boys than how they had ended up.

Lanie was glued to Emily's side, staring at Oliver intently. He was so small, and the little baby noises he emitted as he drank were wrecking her insides. "Oh, Emmie." She extended a cold hand to gently caress his soft face. "Look at him."

"I know. Ollie had a little trouble breathing at first, but the doctors say he's fine now. They're going to watch him for a bit in the NICU just to be sure...but he's Asgardian. I know he is perfect."

Emily's tone was dripping with adoration, and her words took Lanie back slightly. Emily, up until this point, had been so firm in her Midgardianess and keeping to her own ways and ideas about how she wanted her life to go. Lanie had never heard her speak of being Asgardian like it was some sort of gift, and a goofy smile graced Lanie's features. "So love-stricken. Someone is a little fonder of Asgard than I remember her being." She teased, watching a faint blush crawl up her friend's face.

"Well, I figure since I'm...marrying into an Asgardian bloodline, I might as well have pride in it."

Thor's face was shining brighter than the sun, and Loki and Lanie both gasped in surprise at the announcement. Emily couldn't help but bust out laughing at the bewildered look on their faces, apologizing sweetly to her baby boy, who was startled by the sudden sound. She kissed the top of his head, smoothing his light ginger hair out as she did so. "I'm a little offended at how shocked you both are." She said with a laugh and a roll of her eyes.

Neither Loki nor Lanie knew what to say, they didn't know if it was her hormones talking or if the children were just the push she had needed to fully accept her feelings. Either way, ecstatic little smirks found their way to the corners of their lips and Lanie wrapped her arms around her best friend's shoulders. "You're going to be my sister..."

Emily's dark grey eyes misted over as she took Lanie by the hand, giving her fingers a firm squeeze as she did so. "Ohana. We always were."

Lanie wiped a tear from her face and nodded, her voice cracking as she fought to speak. "Ohana."   


	34. Infinity War

The two couples stayed in Midgard for several weeks while both Emily and the twins recovered from their emergency arrival into the world. Tony had set each up a bedroom in Avengers tower, and while they needed to return to Asgard soon for Loki’s impending coronation, they could not leave just yet. Tony had done it--he was ready to turn on his reverse NMI and give it a go. Six-week-old Oliver and William were sleeping soundly in their bassinets, but they were the only calm residents in the tower.  It was now the tail end of September, and October would be ushered in on unpleasant but necessary memories. No one was sure what all about their reality was about to change, and everyone was huddled nervously around Tony in the Towers basement where he kept his machinery.

Tony, Rachel, Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Clint, Emily, and Thor were all crowding a machine roughly the size of a small refrigerator, that glowed a slight, ominous purple. Tony and Bruce were very much focused on applying the finishing touches, and it seemed the only two in the room uninterested in the new device were Loki and Lanie. The couple was off on their own in a corner of the room, looking over Tony’s old marks for his Iron Man suits. Loki had already forced Lanie to remember what he had done almost two years ago now, he was no longer afraid. He knew she loved him despite it all, and he knew the only person in the room who didn’t remember was Emily. No, Loki was more concerned with what this would mean for SHIELD, who he knew they had not heard the last of. His hand was gripping Lanie’s tightly, attempting to distract them both as they wandered idly about the room. This was going to trigger a fight, he knew it, and he was preparing himself mentally.

“You’re being grim and fatalistic, my love.” Lanie whispered, hiding her laughter as her husband lifted an eyebrow at her.

“And you do not feel the same? Our family may very well fall apart in the blink of an eye.”

Lanie rolled her eyes. “Oh, Loki. Emily isn’t going to be _that_ angry. You’re about to be her brother-in-law.”

Loki scoffed, squeezing Lanie’s hand as he glanced sheepishly over his shoulder at their friends. “I would not be so sure. She’s marrying into a family where said brother-in-law killed eighty of her countrymen in two days.”

Lanie’s eyes were bright when she looked at him, and her sweet smile only widened. She was doting on him, and he couldn’t help the small smirk that curled at the corner of his mouth as she did so. “You killed eighty of _my_ countrymen in two days, and I still gave myself to you freely.”

Loki chuckled, leaning in to press a long and inviting kiss to her lips, nuzzling slightly into her neck as he did so. “Well darling there are no women quite like you. Not everyone is quite so forgiving when disarmed by a handsome young god. I’d never find another that loves me as you do if I looked for a thousand years.”

“What does that make me then, weak?” It wasn’t an accusation, more like curiosity in how her husband perceived her. His eyebrows furrowed in immediate disgruntlement.

“Weak? Nothing of the sort. It takes courage to believe in someone the way you believe in me. Your empathy and compassion serve you in a way that I will never come to know. You wield an emotional strength that I lack. It’s attractive.”

She giggled. “Ah, so that’s what you find attractive about me. I’ve often wondered.”

Loki’s strong hands gripped her hips, pulling her closer to his chest as he leaned in to bite her neck roughly. “That, and many other things.” She felt him grin against her flesh, one hand moving to cradle her swollen abdomen while the other slid down to her ass and gave it a nice grab. She was unable to contain the moan that slipped from her lips, and as Tony readied himself to turn on the machine, he lifted his hand to flip the couple off.

With a roll of his chocolate brown eyes and a flashy smile, Tony flipped the switch on the reverse NMI. He and Bruce glanced at the others with baited breath, most eyes on Emily as she put her head in her hands and let out an agonized shriek. Long forgotten memories flashed before her eyes, and her wide grey orbs filled with tears. Panic tore through Thor immediately and he put a hand on the small of her back, bracing himself for the explosive hatred for his brother that was surely to spray from out her like dragon fire. Shock took hold of him as a bewildered smile crossed her face, and she shook her head in utter disbelief.

She saw herself running, fighting through piles of rubble after she struggled to slide out of her hospital bed. She had just had her miscarriage when Loki had opened the portal atop Stark Tower and unleashed the Chitauri. Emily was still cramping, blood and clots running down her legs as the building collapsed around her. She wasn’t certain at what point her unborn child was expelled from her body, only that the bleeding had gotten heavier by the time she crawled her way to the man who had been at her bedside…the man she had been too frightened to call the police on. Her child’s murderer. Tyler. She remembered being far more frightened of him than the terror in the sky, and she approached his body timidly. He wasn’t moving. She was afraid to touch him, but after a moment she realized that there was no rise or fall to his chest. She was…free.

“Loki…” Emily’s voice cracked as she spoke, and though he was across the room from her, his entire body flinched. He loved Emily. The last thing he wanted was for his wife’s best friend to hate him for whatever traumas he accidentally inflicted over a year and a half ago. He refused to meet her gaze, though the more she looked on him the brighter her expression became. “You saved me.” She whispered, tears finally spilling over and rolling silently down her pallid cheeks. Loki’s eyebrows furrowed, and he shot a look at Lanie, whose eyes had glazed over.

“I…beg your pardon?”

“She’s right,” Lanie whispered in awe. “I only remembered what was relevant to me before…but now…Loki, you killed him.”

It was clear that Loki didn’t understand, and Emily knew that. She had never opened up to him about what had happened to her, she had barely opened up to Thor. Her body was trembling, and she pulled away from her fiancés touch to slowly walk toward the god. She wrapped her arms around his lithe frame tightly and buried her face in his muscular torso. She couldn’t force words from her mouth as she sobbed into his chest, and Lanie gave Loki a knowing nod.

“Do it.” She urged gently.

Loki placed a hand gently to Emily’s forehead, trusting himself deep into her memories. Loki had known a lot of hurt in his long life, but the newest part of him, the part of him that was a husband and father, shattered in his chest for her. The love that he held in his heart for his daughter was as pure and strong as it was new, and he could not comprehend the pain and scarring that had been left upon Emily’s soul. The loss of a child, no matter how young, was the loss of ones very humanity. It left a coldness where warmth once was, and Loki found himself pressing an incredibly tender kiss to Emily’s cheek. His long fingers curled into her wine-colored locks, and he held her against him as she wept. His own dark blue eyes were misted, and he realized for perhaps the first time in his life that he did not know as much suffering as he had originally thought. There were some hurts that were greater than he was willing to ponder, and he attempted to shake the images from his mind. “I am so, so sorry.”

Thor’s expression was stony as he watched them, remembering her words to him when she had woken after the incident with Mr. Eckard. He knew what made her weep, and to this day it made his blood boil. His only regret was that he couldn’t have killed Tyler himself. Tony and Natasha, along with the rest of the Avengers, were a bit bewildered by the display. Stark shuffled around awkwardly for a moment before clearing his throat. “Uh, if we are all done blowing Mr. Full-tilt Diva, we should get back to what’s important. You know, SHIELD.”

Loki scoffed at the quip, a playful pout crossing his expression as Natasha nodded in agreement. “Tony’s right, for once. Now that we know the machine is working, we are gonna be on SHIELD’s radar in a bad way.”

Lanie snorted. “We already are. I shot the director, remember?”

Steve grimaced. “We know, and that complicates things. We have no way of knowing what the scepter is doing to his mind, or how far he will go to end this. Barton wasn’t under the scepters influence long enough for us to theorize—”

“I was. I wielded that scepter for months, it’s pretty simple, really.” Loki explained with a smirk, letting go of Emily to gesture grandly toward the captain. Steve wanted to wipe that smug smile right off Loki’s face, though he knew that at least for the interim they had to pretend to get along. “What you so flippantly describe as my ‘scepter’ isn’t a staff of any kind at all. It is an infinity stone. I think you will benefit from having me onboard as an Avenger, no? I have inside knowledge on how the stone works, and who it belongs to.”

The room quieted immediately, and though Emily looked lost, Lanie cast her eyes toward the floor sheepishly. Loki had told her all about Thanos and the infinity stones, she knew this was bad. Thor and Tony seemed to be having a staring contest, as if they couldn’t decide which of them was angrier that this was just now being brought to their attention. It was Natasha, however, who spoke. “An infinity stone? You mean like the Tesseract?”

Loki winked at her, his smirk only growing as an evil flicker passed through his eyes. Lanie had to nudge him with her elbow, shooting him a look from her peripheral vision. He attempted to regain his composure, though it brought him unmistakable glee to have the upper hand for once, to be the one who had knowledge that could literally save the galaxy. “Exactly like the Tesseract. You think that I harnessed both during my assault on this realm to be a coincidence? Come now, Agent Romanoff. You’re smarter than that.”

Steve looked confused, and he chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before responding. “What does this mean, Loki? Speak plainly.”

Loki grabbed a hold of Lanie, pulling her against him and wrapping his hands around her large belly. Edith kicked him gently, and he rubbed the spot where her little feet drummed contentedly against the pressure of his touch. His expression softened, and his voice was low and oddly serious as he spoke. “It means that your precious Earth is housing two of the most powerful and ancient substances in the universe, which puts a very grave price upon your heads. It means that Director Fury has lost himself to the whispers of one such power, and he will stop at nothing—and I mean _nothing_ to make his ambition tangible. But most of all, it means that you must not lose sight of that which you hold most dear. War is coming, Captain. None of us are ready for it.”

Steve seemed to take that as a challenge, his icy blue orbs filling with a righteousness and conviction that only Captain America could ever muster. He and Tony exchanged glances, nodding to one another silently, as if communicating through eyes alone. If it was a fight Nick wanted, it was a fight he was going to get. He smiled, taking a page from Stark’s book as he shrugged at the god of mischief. “Then I expect you to be prepared for what that means. Welcome to the team, Reindeer Games.”          


	35. Cloak and Dagger

            October first was a beautiful, crisp fall evening. The sun was shining through the lavender curtains in Loki and Lanie’s room in Avengers Tower and Loki’s laughter could be heard down the hall as he had his face pressed against Lanie’s large belly. He was whispering sweet nothings, and her strong little feet were beating lovingly against his cheek. Lanie cupped her stomach with her hand and sighed, wincing as Edith kicked her a little harder than usual.

            “Ugh, I look nine months pregnant. Loki, I don’t think we can make it to January.” She complained.

            He laughed. “Well the doctor said yesterday that she was measuring eight pounds five ounces, he didn’t believe us when we told him you were six months pregnant. Any normal six-month-old unborn child should measure a little over two pounds.”

            “I know, makes me wonder if it has anything to do with her being a Frost Giant.” Loki shrugged at her words, clearly unbothered by his daughter’s size as he peppered her belly with tender kisses. Loki had been in a very affectionate mood of late, and Lanie was sure that he was more than excited to become a father. All that anxiety had seemed to melt away, and nothing could have made her happier. “I guess I just thought we would have more time.”

            Loki shrugged again. “I wouldn’t worry about it my love, you saw what happened with William and Oliver. Edith will come when she is ready, no sooner and no later. All I know is that I am determined to be everything that Odin wasn’t. I don’t care if Thanos chases us to the end of the universe; I will make this work. Edith will want for nothing.”

            Lanie grinned, tugging on Loki’s curls and bringing him closer to her face. Her tongue slid happily into his mouth, and he groaned against the sensation. His large hands wandered across her body, finding her hips and pulling her on top of him as he nuzzled into her touch. Lanie’s brown eyes couldn’t contain the love settled there as she watched him beneath her, blue eyes as gentle a blue as the sky and his black hair like satin between her fingers. She had married an angel, she could tell. “I love you.”

            A smirk twisted at the corner of Loki’s mouth and his long black eyelashes fluttered against his pale cheeks as a light mischief flickered behind his expression. “I know.” He leaned in, sucking on Lanie’s neck as his arms tightened around her protectively. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she giggled to herself as there was a knock on the door. Loki sighed heavily in a pout, content to ignore the intrusion, though Lanie called out through the door.

            “Yes?”

            Steve peaked his head through the door and shot the floor a bashful smile, as if he had caught the couple engaged in something dirty. His ocean eyes were glued to the carpet and he chuckled silently to himself before responding. “Natasha and Bruce made spaghetti, thought I’d let you know. Everyone is eating on the couch in the lobby if you wanna join.”

            Meanwhile, Fury and Annabel were both pacing back and forth in a forgotten warehouse, the bright blue glow of Loki’s sceptre shinning on the table to their left. The plans for Phase Two were laid out before them, and Fury cackled to himself for several moments while he wrung his hands together. It was an unhinged sound, and even Annabel stared at him in slight concern for a minute or two. “Sir, it’s not the weapons that are the issue. We cannot continue to make weapons of mass destruction if the Avengers are just going to reverse them time and time again. Stark has outplayed us.”

            “Has he?” Even as he spoke directly to her, Nick sounded a thousand miles away. His eye was glassy and unfocused, and he did not look upon her directly. “He thinks he can disable my weapons, he thinks he can replace _me_ as director? Tony has always thought he was so _smart_. He won’t feel so smart when I have Loki and his little bitch in shallow graves; when I have his precious tower going down in flame. He will be lucky if I don’t kill him too.”

            Annabel grimaced, but she didn’t dare argue. Fury hadn’t been himself lately, and she was sure any argument would elicit paranoia that she just couldn’t afford. Nick was unstable enough as it was. She looked over the battle strategy briefly. Her frown deepened. Annabel wasn’t so sure that this wasn’t blatant suicide. Fury had sleeper agents planting bombs around the tower as they spoke, but she didn’t dare imagine that Tony was stupid enough to let just anyone into the tower when SHIELD had literally crumbled around him…and then…there was Steve.

           “You really think Rogers won’t be suspicious? He must have some sort of inkling that SHIELD is HYDRA. Rogers is old but he’s not stupid.”

            Fury rolled his eye. Steven Rogers had believed the hardest in SHIELD, he would be the last to realize that SHIELD hadn’t been the organization Peggy Carter founded for several years.  Nick thought Annabel had simply grown soft, that she’d fallen in love with Tony for real. He growled at her. “And just where do your loyalties lie, _Anne_?” He spat.

            She flinched at the sound of her old name, and her eyes betrayed her. She swore under her breath and attempted to regain her composure. “Excuse me? I am not incompetent Director, you would do well to remember that Steve isn’t as naive as you paint him out to be. Steve stands against heavy bureaucracy. I simply felt it necessary to warn you.”

            Fury scoffed and grabbed his attack plan off the desk with a snarl. “I can look after myself, Klind. I did not ask for your opinion.” She blanched once more at the sound of his bark as it ricocheted off the walls. Nick was going to get himself killed, she could feel it. But Annabel had been working so diligently for so long on this project, she wasn’t about to turn back now. If they were going to go toe to toe with the Avengers, and soon…then she guessed she better ready herself for the oncoming storm.

            Little did Fury know, Annabel wasn’t the agent he had to worry about. Back at the tower, the avengers were sitting on Tony’s long mahogany couch and eating the dinner that Natasha and Bruce had prepared. The pair were making eyes at each other, and Lanie and Loki were trying not to laugh as they watched Banner attempt to flirt. Thor was paying them no mind, wide eyes doting on his fiancée as she breastfed their children. Oliver was being an ornery little thing, wiggling and gurgling on his milk while his brother sat and ate patiently. Emily was running her fingers through their strawberry blonde hair and she leaned up to kiss Thor tenderly on the lips.

            It was then that Loki cleared his throat, demanding the attention of his newfound friends. He put his hand on the small of Lanie’s back, rubbing it in soothing circles as he spoke. He liked being an Avenger and feeling like he had this sense of belonging…but he also knew that he had responsibilities back home, and he wanted to get Lanie back to Asgard as quickly as possible in her condition. The god had a gut feeling that Edith was going to be making her entrance into this world any minute now. “So, how often are we to live in this Tower? We cannot do it often, I have a realm to rule.”

            Tony and Steve both nearly choked on their noodles, peels of laughter bouncing off their chests at his statement. There was no way Thor’s people would ever let Loki be king, that was ridiculous. “No offense buddy, you’re different now and all, but who would be stupid enough to let you be in charge of an entire planets worth of lives?” Tony wheezed, wiping a tear from his eyes as he did so.

            Lanie sneered at her old mentor, and Loki moved his hand from her back to wrap around her waist and rub the swell of her pregnancy gently. “Easy, Kitten.” He muttered in her ear, petting her hair with his freehand as he did so. “Anthony, you would do well to not anger the impending Queen of Asgard. She’s a bit temperamental right now.”

            Tony continued to howl with laughter, until he looked into Lanie’s eyes and realized suddenly that he wasn’t joking. “Wait are you for real? They’re crowning you king?”

            Thor snorted. “Against their better judgement. I did not want the throne, and thus, it befell to Loki.”

            Tony eyed Loki for a moment, as if waiting for him to retaliate, though to his surprise the god seemed utterly disinterested in the conversation. He was far more interested in his wife, who seemed like she was becoming very uncomfortable. Tony rolled his chocolate colored orbs and sighed. “Oh c’mon, Lanie, you didn’t used to be such a stick in the mud.”

            Lanie shook her head, her hand atop Loki’s own as she clutched her midsection. “N-No, it’s not that. It’s just really hot in here all of a sudden.” Loki turned to say something to Emily, but she was already ahead of him. She stood, hoisting her nursing sons as she carefully made it over to the thermostat.

            “Sorry sweetie. It got up to seventy-five in here.” Emily turned it down well into the sixties, but Loki could feel Lanie starting to sweat, and her stomach felt hard. He stood silently, walking to the nearby refrigerator and grabbing an ice pack.

            “Come, Pet. Follow me to the bedroom.”

            Lanie obeyed, forcing herself to her feet and waddling after her husband. Her face contorted into a pout as they made it back to their bedroom, and Loki pressed a kiss to the center of her forehead. “Are you in pain?”

            Lanie nodded. “It starts at my back and wraps around; my entire middle is tight.” Loki’s eyebrows knitted together in worry, and he helped her back up onto the bed. He laid her on her side and lifted her shirt. He placed the icepack delicately on her belly and held it there, moving it up and down along where he could feel Edith’s tiny arms within her mother’s womb.

            “Does this feel better?”

            She hummed lightly, eyes fluttering as she fought her own tiredness. “Yes. I think it’s just Braxton Hicks. She’s running out of room in there. Might be why she’s hot, too.”

            Loki crawled onto the bed beside her, kissing up and down her arm and shoulder as he continued to hold the icepack in place. He spooned into her back, nuzzling his face into her neck. He was both worried and excited, and he could only imagine what Emily and Natasha were saying about it back in the lobby. The two of them had an ongoing bet on how long Lanie was going to make it for, and at this precise moment he was worried that they were both wrong. Edith wasn’t following anyone’s rules but her own. The thought of her rebellion made him smile and he rubbed her favorite spot lovingly. “Be nice to your mummy, please. She can only take so much at once.”

            Lanie laughed softly at him, though she wasn’t able to respond as there was yet another knock on the door. Neither responded, assuming it was Emily checking in on them. She knew better than to knock, she’d let herself in. When instead came a second knock, Lanie tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Hello?”

            The door creaked open slowly, Steve’s head peaking in once again. His sheepish demeanor from earlier had been replaced with an anxious and grim expression. It instantly put Loki on the defensive. “Captain?”

            Steve seemed to chew on his words for a moment before speaking them, unsure if he was going to do more harm than good in letting an ailing pregnant woman know they were in immediate danger. “Loki, you may want to step outside with me for a moment. Agent Coulson is here with some news. The prognosis is…grave.”

            Loki hissed. “Whose grand idea was it to let a SHIELD operative anywhere near this facility?”

            Steve sighed and opened the door up wide, gesturing for Loki to meet him out in the hallway. “It’s…best if you come see for yourself.”        


	36. Hail Hydra

            Chaos had consumed the otherwise peaceful night, and though her husband had bid her lay still, Lanie had slowly and painfully toddled after him as he followed Steve into the main foyer. Loki frowned, eyeing her in mild concern, though he didn’t chastise her. He could see the fear written in her expression, and he knew that if she’d stayed in the bedroom her curiosity would have put stress on both her and Edith. At least she still held the icepack, which was firmly pressed to her aching abdomen. Loki snaked a possessive arm around her body as Coulson entered the room, his dark sapphire eyes burning with a protective hatred. He dared the agent to make a move on his wife; if he hadn’t succeeded in killing him the first time, he surely would now.

              Coulson sighed heavily and lifted his hands in surrender. He wasn’t here to fight the infamous villain-turned-Avenger, no matter whether he believed the change of heart was sincere. The rest of the Avengers were like family to Phil, and he wasn’t about to let Fury destroy them with his own paranoia. He clucked at Lanie sadly with a shake of his head, as if in disapproval of her recent life choices, but he chose to swallow his opinion as he attempted to remain civil. “Look, I’m not here to cause trouble. I know there is a child in danger, and no matter who her father is I am not going to stand by and let someone who used to be my friend take her life away before she gets to live it.”

            Lanie smiled in appreciation, but Loki’s eyes remained icy and cold. He glared down his nose at the agent but didn’t really respond as Steve cleared his throat from where he sat in the corner of the room. Phil smiled toothily at him, a certain glee filling his eyes as he did so. It seemed the captain’s charms didn’t only work on women. “Y-Yes, sir, sorry. I’ve brought important news. It has been brought to my attention that Fury and the ex-Mrs. Stark have been securing bombs around the perimeter for weeks now. There is enough C4 on the bottom floor of this building to level a mountain.”

            His words settled in the air for a moment as Steve called for Tony, sheer confusion and anger marring his features. All of the Avengers had been living in the tower and were accounted for for several weeks now. How the hell did none of them catch Fury snooping around the lower levels?

            Tony listened to Coulson with a bitter disinterest. He cared more about what was clearly going on with Lanie’s body than he did a stupid rumor that Fury and his ex-wife had breached his air tight security. Lanie had worked under him for a long time and believe it or not he did care an awful lot about her. “Alaine, honey, go lay on the couch, JARVIS will get you some water. As for you, Phil, I appreciate the concern but after Reindeer Games literally knocked the shit out the place last year I doubled my security. Anyone who could get through SHIELD operatives and seven Avengers undetected would need to be Jedi level sneaky. This is Nick we are talking about.”

            “And you don’t think SHIELD remains loyal to its former Director?” It was Steve who asked this, though Phil was the one to answer. He shook his head, a dark and solemn fear glazing his eyes as he begged Tony to heed his warning.

            “It’s worse than that, Captain Rogers. Mr. Stark has been right to assume that most of our agents…the _good_ agents, left when the Director began to come unglued. But SHIELD is legion. There are more operatives out there than any of you have met before, and the scary truth is that the vast majority of SHIELD…a vast majority of those agents out there, have turned our organization into something far more sinister. Do you remember Fury’s blueprints for Phase II? Tell me, Stark, why you think SHIELD was building weapons of mass destruction, why they still are.”

                 Steve went completely white, his eyes wide with a horror that Loki had never seen there before. Loki and Lanie exchanged confused glances, no longer able to follow the conversations train of thought as it dawned on Rogers that the love of his life had built an organization that had become the very thing she had spent her entire life fighting against. The soldier felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. “Because we haven’t been working for SHIELD; we’ve been working for Hydra.”

            Neither Lanie nor Loki knew what that meant, but Tony did, and he swore under his breath. Peggy Carter wasn’t the only one who fought Hydra, Tony’s father Howard had been by her side through it all. Tony had been sick with jealousy as a child, hearing about how high and mighty Steve was and how it took courage and bravery to stand against a terrorist organization like Hydra. He sneered at the mere mention of the word, and he barked at Steve to go get Thor and Emily. His father didn’t forsake his childhood to build a multimillion-dollar corporation and fund an anti-terror espionage organization for this to be how it ended. Hydra didn’t get to have Iron Man on their payroll. “How long have you known about this?”

            Phil cast his eyes downward, and Tony shrugged Loki’s hand off of his shoulder as the god attempted to calm him. “Tony…there is a lot we have to talk about. Howard wouldn’t have wanted you involved—” The agent trailed off, watching as Steve came back with Thor and Emily. Tony was seething, and he turned to look at Emily hard for a moment or two.

            “You have ice powers, right?” He approached her, touching each of her shoulders in a crossed fashion, as if knighting her. “You’re now an Avenger. Congratulations, I seem to be doing this a lot lately.” Emily shot a bewildered look at her fiancé, who cleared his throat loudly at Tony.

            “What is going on here? Why does my Emily need to avenge anything?”

            Tony snorted. “Why don’t you ask Coulson? Seems like we’re gonna need all the help we can get when I get my hands on Fury and my bastard wife. In the meantime, I want everyone who isn’t Lanie outside hunting the perimeter for explosives. JARVIS will make sure any lingering SHIELD agents guarding the building are relieved from duty.”

            Lanie puffed her lip out in a pout and rolled her eyes at her exclusion. She hated being the weakest link. “I’m not made of glass, I can help look—”

            “No.” Tony and Loki growled simultaneously. Loki’s eyes looked as if they were on fire, alight with a stern warning. It made Lanie flinch, and he spoke to her with authority. “Go lay down like Stark asked of you. Now.”

            Lanie’s lip quivered and his blue eyes softened. He reached for her hand and Tony sighed heavily as he watched the Asgardian pull her against him. “Loki, if she doesn’t want to be alone you can stay here. Everyone else, let’s go, I’ll explain what’s going on on the way down.”

            Phil and the other Avengers headed toward the elevator and Loki pressed a soft, gentle kiss to the center of Lanie’s forehead. His large nose pressed against her cheek as he nuzzled into her, and his hands wandered to cup her contracting belly, as they always did. “You wanted me to be the hero you saw when you looked at me. Those are _your_ words. Let me be it.” He whispered.

            “Loki, you became that hero to everyone when you started standing for what was just. To me, you’ve _always_ been that hero. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, I just…” She trailed off, her hands gliding over his own as her thoughts wandered to Edith. She was more than a little worried that she had jinxed herself earlier…these might not be Braxton Hix after all.

            “I know, Fair One. I know. You’re frightened and in pain, and you need me to be here if anything happens.” Loki leaned in and captured her lips gently, his tongue caressing her own in an attempt at soothing her. She curled her fingers gingerly into his long curls, wincing only slightly as a rough contraction tore through her middle. “I love you,” he whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

            She hummed. “I’m glad you aren’t. I think Edith might need you a little sooner than I thought.”

            Loki’s eyebrows furrowed, and he rubbed her lower back tenderly as she let out a small gasp of pain. “Are they coming faster now?”

            She nodded. “And lasting longer. These contractions are about two minutes apart.”

            Loki chewed on his lip for a moment, a little bit of terror nestling into his eyes as he realized this might be the night that he becomes a father. He glanced at the clock; it was 11ish at night, almost midnight. He sincerely hoped this whole bomb threat would blow over and they could all go to bed, perhaps waking to the birth of his little girl. As Lanie doubled over slightly, however, crying out in pain as he held her, he realized that he likely didn’t have enough time to wait and find out. “Breathe, love. We need to get you out of here, hm? We need to go home.”

Lanie looked at him as if he’d lost his mind and scoffed. “I’m in labor, I don’t really want to be sucked up into the Bifrost right now. It’s really uncomfortable.” She whined. Loki chuckled, kissing her again as he did so.

“We have little choice. I will not allow you to birth my heir under circumstances this dangerous. You and I are going to go home and you’re going to be made very comfortable, and we are going to have this baby, okay?” His voice was low and gentle, like velvet, and Lanie couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth. She laced her fingers with his own and gave them a loving squeeze.

“Okay.”

Loki grinned, eyes twinkling as a bubble of excitement flooded his chest. He had spent the last six months picturing this child, and pretty soon it would all become a reality. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear tenderly and opened his mouth to say something as a thunderous sound shook the entire tower. Loki frantically reached for Lanie’s hand, tugging her back toward the bedroom as chunks of wall and plaster flew their way and the entire living room was engulfed by flame.

“Loki?!” She screamed, another bomb exploding violently as she felt him knock her to the floor and shield her with his body. He held her steadfast, frozen in fear as all three of their lives flashed before his eyes. He shushed her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear as she toiled there, in labor, singed, and very much afraid.    


	37. The Show Must Go On

In the wake of the destruction as the smoke settled in around them, Loki could feel a dampness beneath his body. He didn’t have to ask, he knew his wife’s water had broken, and they didn’t have much time before this baby arrived. Lanie was panting beneath him, tears rolling down her face as she clung to his armor. She was overheating from the fire, and Edith’s head had dropped to sit on her pelvis with an unbearably painful pressure.

            “L-Loki...it hurts. Something is wrong.” She whimpered quietly, being shushed as Loki struggled to his feet. He bent down to scoop her up with ease and cradle her tightly against his chest.

            “I know, you’re hot, Kitten. I’ve got you.” Loki had become more than accustomed to the mandatory temperature his daughters growing body seemed to require and on instinct he ran for the bedroom on the far end of the hallway, furthest from the fire. He kicked down the bathroom door and turned the water on cold, sitting Lanie delicately on her feet and taking her face into his hands. “Now, listen to me very carefully. You are to sit in this bathtub with the door locked and labor as naturally and smoothly as you can. Do not open this door for anyone but me, is that understood? I will be back for you, I promise.”

            Lanie burst into frantic tears and shook her head no. “Please don’t go. I can’t have this baby without you.”

            Loki smoothed her hair soothingly with one hand and kissed the top of her head, using his free hand to tilt her chin and force her to meet his gaze. “You won’t have to. I won’t be gone long, but I must check on the others and make sure the twins are safe. You are so strong, my love. Do not forget that. Now you stay in here and do whatever you must for our daughter until I come for you. Can you do that?” She nodded, and he ebbed a tear from her cheek with his thumb as he pressed one final kiss to the tip of her nose. “Lock this door.” He repeated as he slammed it shut behind him, leaving her to her own devices.

            Lanie stared at the door for several minutes before she found herself numbly obeying her husbands demands. She slid out of her yellow sundress and stepped into the ice-cold water. Her aching body could have sighed in relief as she sat, and she closed her eyes as she lay back and attempted to relax. Her hands rubbed her abdomen delicately, missing Loki’s loving touch as he paid attention to their little girl. “Edith, baby, I know it’s time for you to come out now, but I need you to work with mommy a little bit, okay? Please wait for daddy, please.” She whispered, caressing the side where she knew her daughter liked to lay. She was so frightened. She had no idea who this “Hydra” was or what they had done, but if Fury was behind this, she knew her baby was in very real danger.

            Loki had grabbed his now screaming nephews on his way down to check on the others, and Emily and Thor both bolted to his side. Emily grabbed both of her children up into her arms and cradled them against her bosom, tears falling into their small tufts of ginger hair. “You need to get them out of here, take them to Asgard, take them anywhere, but they need to leave.”

            Emily wiped a tear from her cheek and rose an incredulous eyebrow at her brother-in-law. “What about Lanie? She needs to be safe as much as—” Loki’s somber expression cut her off, and the way he locked his jaw and refused to meet her eyes made an eerie shiver creep up her spine. Loki’s eyes were shiny, as if he wanted to cry, and she narrowed her eyes at him. He sighed.

            “She’s very nearly in active labor, it would not be safe to move her. I must get back to her, so I need this done quickly. Give the boys to Phil, have Heimdall take care of transporting them safely home. Phil can afford to be spared, neither one of you, I’m afraid, can. It’s going to take all of us to end this madness.”

            Active labor? No, no, no, there was no way she was leaving her best friend to go through that alone. Emily darted toward the stairs, not quite making it as a sleeper agent tore through the gaping hole left in the bombs wake. He walked his gun to the center of her forehead, mashing the barrel into her skin. She hissed at the sensation, though her steely grey eyes never once left the beady black expression of the man before her. In a thick, German accent, he spoke. “Where is the whore?”

            Emily’s eyes seemed to stare completely past the stranger, her face void of emotion as she felt the magic teeming at her fingertips. A wicked smile slowly curled at the corner of her mouth, and the agent screamed again, this time grabbing her hard by her long burgundy locks. Thor began bolting toward her but halted in his tracks as Emily’s hands became one with the ice in her veins. Thick shards of ice splintered into the agent’s jugular and blood splattered into the red of Emily’s hair.

            More agents flooded the building in an angry terror and all eight Avengers were surrounded on all sides. Rachel cowered into a corner; screams of terror were filling her lungs, and as she clung to Tony’s side he took her roughly by the hand. “Go find Lanie, you’ll be safe with her. Now!”

            Rachel’s skinny legs pushed her forward violently, adrenaline taking Tony’s word as law as she bolted toward the stairs. Loki grabbed her by her shoulder hard and spun her around to face him, frantically barking at her as his hand plunged deep inside a Hydra agent’s chest. “I told her not to open for anyone but me, you must tell her something only I would know to get her to believe I allowed you to enter the room. Tell her our child was conceived in the hidden garden beneath my window lattice, and that our daughter bares the same initials as her late mother. The only two souls alive who know that are us.”

            “That was a lot more about you and my intern than I needed to hear, Rock of Ages.” Tony quipped, a repulsor beam tearing through flesh and armor as he held the swarm off his girlfriends’ side of the building as best he could.

            Loki opened his mouth to retort when Thor cut in. There was a deafening crack of thunder as Mjolnir collided with skulls and jaws, teeth being spat into the air left and right. “Brother, there is no garden beneath your window lattice.”

            Loki snorted and shot a wink in his brothers’ direction. “That _you_ know of.” Thor didn’t have much time to think on this revelation as one of Tony’s beams whizzed passed his face and bounced from the surface of Steve’s shield into the center of an oncoming swarm. Steve then pivoted his body to his left, ripping into many faces as the enemy was knocked backward from the sheer brute force of the soldier’s swing.

            “How about we stop gabbing our jaws?” He chided, raising a blonde eyebrow at Thor as he grabbed Emily by her waist and flung her, ice daggers exploding from her person as Hulk caught her effortlessly in his enormous arms. Loki leered, a wild expression painting his face as he watched her.

            “I taught her that.” There was pride in his voice, though his confidence wavered slightly as Natasha pulled him from his thoughts. She was on some bastards’ shoulders, her thighs on the brink of breaking his neck as she choked him. She panted, worried green eyes darting toward the stairs as Rachel flew up them in search of Lanie.

            “Do you need me to stand guard? I haven’t seen Nick in all this mess, she isn’t safe, Loki.” Loki wasn’t sure when Natasha had become so keenly invested in his wife’s wellbeing, but she did make a good point. His every instinct told him to run to her, but he knew his abilities were needed where he was. This was the best and only way he knew to keep her safe.

            “I’ll go, you cover Rogers while Emily and Thor help Bruce smash. Loki, you do what you do best with your illusions and your magic, be tactical, stealth is your strongest point.” Tony said, earning a bewildered scoff from Natasha.

            “Would the team not be better off with you covering Cap and me playing defense?”

            “Do as I ask, Romanoff.”

            Natasha rolled off the agent’s limp body and ran to Steve’s side as Loki multiplied his body by a hundred. Tony pressed passed the operatives on his flank and flew up the stairs in his suit at the speed of light. JARVIS radioed in, ringing in his ears, and he had to fight the urge to roll his chocolate brown eyes at the interface.

            “Is it Rachel we are chasing after, or is it Miss Fenton?”

            “Don’t be an idiot, JARVIS. Of course it’s Rachel.” Even as the words passed his lips he knew he was lying, and there was no chance in hell that JARVIS didn’t know it too. Even when he’d been “married” to Anne he had been sweet on Lanie, it was no secret. It had almost wrecked his marriage twice…and now? Now that he was free of Anne? It took all the willpower in Tony’s body to continue his pursuit of useless relationship after useless relationship, pretending he wasn’t interested in the one girl he knew he couldn’t have. When she’d been his intern, it was a professional issue. He was her teacher, it wouldn’t have been right to take advantage of such a young, bright student. Lanie had had her whole career and life ahead of her. Now she belonged to someone who didn’t deserve her, and while Tony cooperated with Loki and took his side to make her happy, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the two of them could have been great… _would_ have been great.

            “She’s married, Sir. Married and very, very pregnant.”

            Tony sighed. “I know, JARVIS. I know.”

Meanwhile, Rachel had made it to the bathroom on the penthouse level and was banging harshly on the door. Lanie was too frightened to move, petrified as the knock bounced off the walls. She fought the urge to scream as she felt Edith’s head move lower into her pelvis. Her daughter was not waiting on Loki, it would not be long now at all and she hoped with all her might that she could resist her need to push.

“Lanie, please, it’s me, Rachel. Loki told me to come in here and hide with you, where it would be safe.”

Lanie held her hands protectively around her baby bump and all but hissed in the direction of the door. “And how do I know that’s the truth?”

“He told me to tell you that your baby was conceived in the garden under his window lattice, and that her initials belong to your mother. He said it was something that only he would know.”

Lanie mulled that over in her head for a moment, as if deciding whether or not the disembodied voice could be trusted. Her husbands’ words were ringing in her ears, and it made her nervous that he had not been the one to come and deliver this news himself. It was true, however, that the only other person in all the Nine Realms that knew the garden existed was Frigga. There was no way Rachel or anyone else could have gotten that information from anyone but her Loki. She struggled to her feet, waddling to the door and unhinging the latch. She peeked her head out just a bit, sighing in relief when she saw only Rachel. “You’ll have to excuse me, let me put my dress back on.”

Lanie turned her back on Rachel for a moment, who opened the door wider. She stepped back into her yellow sundress and shimmied it up her heavily pregnant body. Lanie doubled over slightly, moaning out loudly as she repressed the overwhelming need she had to bare down. Her legs trembled, and she reached for Rachel to steady herself. When she didn’t feel the other woman beside her, Lanie turned slowly, her eyes widening in shock as she backed herself against the cold sheen of the porcelain tub.

   There Rachel was, gurgling on the floor. Her neck had been slit from end to end, and as the thick crimson substance poured out and down her twitching body, none other than Annabel Klind stepped out from the shadows. The bloodied knife in her hand gleamed in the dim bathroom light, and she pressed the knife firmly against Lanie’s abdomen. “You’re going to want to come with me if you value your daughter’s life.”


	38. My Last Breath

Deep in the throes of battle, blood marred the marbled floor and painted the stark white walls of Avengers Tower. With the twins safely in Asgard with Coulson, Emily and Thor spared no expense in their slaughter of the remaining SHIELD/Hydra operatives. Steve looked around the perimeter of the room for Loki, who was hidden somewhere in the shadows while his doppelgangers aided in the bloodbath. His eyes found the god nestled behind a darkened corner, and he signaled for him to approach. It had been a good while, and he knew Loki had someone upstairs that really needed him to be there. He couldn’t imagine what Lanie must be going through. “Odinson? Don’t you have a daughter to be welcoming into the world? Go on, they’ve mostly dispersed, we’ve got this.”

            Loki gave a nod of appreciation, readying himself to fly to his wife, which he’d been dying to do from the get-go. He was going to be devastated if Edith had made her way into the world without him. This was his first child, and he wanted to be there for her first breath, her first smile, her first steps. He didn’t want to miss a precious moment of the beautiful life he created. He would be damned if he raised her the way Odin raised him. When he made it to the base of the steps he ran smack dab into Tony, whose faceplate was down, and he was pale as a sheet. His wide brown eyes were glazed, and Loki furrowed his eyebrows at his teammate. “Anthony? Is there something wrong with my wife?” When Tony didn’t respond, Loki shook him hard. “Say something!”

            “She’s dead.”

            Loki’s blood ran cold. “E-Excuse me?”

            Tony shook his head. “Rachel, she’s dead. When I entered the bathroom there was a tub full of water but Lanie was gone.” Tony’s voice was numb and shaky, and Loki swore under his breath. He could hear Steve utter his name behind him, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the panic and chagrin written in Tony’s eyes. Something was swirling in those dark eyes that made Loki uneasy, and he didn’t think Rachel’s death was the primary source. There was worry buried there, and a jealousy bubbled in his chest, though he swallowed it. Now was not the time.

            “Looking for someone?” Loki recognized that voice immediately, and his eyes were alight with rage as he slowly turned to face his enemy. There Fury stood, his hands buried in Lanie’s long brunette curls as he forced her to her knees. His free hand held Loki’s scepter, and Lanie’s eyes glowed a bright blue. Loki growled; it was a deep, monstrous sound, and his body quaked with raw unbridled anger.

            “What have you done to her?” The question was mostly rhetorical, Loki had used the staff to do that very thing to a great many people, but the effects it would have on her remained to be seen. What exactly had he put in her head?

            Fury cackled, pushing Lanie’s trembling and writhing body to the ground hard. She screamed, and sobs tore through her as she cradled her swollen middle. “I suppose you could say I’ve expanded her mind.” He mocked, throwing Loki’s own words from his stint with Agent Barton back in his face. “She’s not allowed to push. I couldn’t have her dropping her litter like an animal while I was trying to negotiate, now could I? This is your final warning, Laufeyson. Turn yourself in or this scepter goes straight through your wife and unborn child like a knife through butter.”

            Loki’s heart broke, watching her wallow in extreme pain. Blood was running down her legs, and he knew she and the baby didn’t have long to live if she didn’t give birth soon. He didn’t want to abandon his child the way he was abandoned, but if it meant that she were to live in his place, then the sacrifice would be worth it. He approached Fury very slowly, kneeling at his feet with his head down. He swallowed his pride, biting his lip hard as his eyes lingered on his wife’s agonized face. He reached to very delicately caress her cheek, and he whispered to her sweetly for a moment before finding his voice. “You have my word, I will go with you freely so long as you fix her. Let her go, let her have our child. Please.”

            Fury looked from Lanie to Loki and then back again, shaking his head wildly from side to side as he did so. “No deal. Last time I let her go to apprehend you the mother fucker shot me. I want you gagged and bound first.”

            Lanie wailed in pain once more and Loki slammed his fist into the floor, unable to control his own emotions. “Damn you, she’s going to die. She has betrayed none; is not this murder? There is no justice in the shedding of her blood…of _Edith’s_ blood. If you are to kill anyone, kill me. I am the guilty party, not them.”

            Fury raised the scepter, and Loki closed his eyes. He wanted the last thing he saw to be that image he had in his head, the daydream of the family he’d never see grow. He saw Lanie with a little black-haired baby on her hip, and the swell of another pregnancy in her middle. He saw himself, regal in all his kingly glory, watching his girls from where he sat on the throne. A small smile graced his features as he awaited a blow that never came. Steve had neared the god, his blue eyes shining with a conviction that Fury knew all too well.

            “Loki is an avenger, he’s family, and family doesn’t trade lives, Nick.” Loki’s eyes popped open, surprised, just in time to see Steve rear his arm back and throw his shield violently at Fury’s chest. Ribs cracked as the Director was sent flying several feet, and Loki crawled without a moment’s hesitation to where his Fair One lay. He put her head in his lap, fingers curling into her hair as he shushed her. Steve stalked toward Fury while Emily and Tony engaged in hand to hand combat with Annabel, who had shown up just in time to come to her Directors aid.

            “Captain Rogers. Let me have him, if you will.” Thor muttered, swinging Mjolnir in circles as he fought the pure urge to kill him. Steve shrugged, knowing good and well that this was personal for Thor. Fury had fucked with Thor’s baby brother and his unborn niece, he had the most right of anyone there besides Loki himself to bring Nick to his knees.

            “Go get ‘em.”

            Thor didn’t need to be told twice, dropping his hammer on Nick’s chest to prevent an escape from the inevitable ass beating he was about to receive. In the interim, Natasha grabbed the scepter from beside Fury’s body, and sprinted to Loki, who was cradling Lanie in a panic-stricken state.

            “She’s incoherent, the pain is too great, and her body can’t do anything about it.” He whimpered, a sense of helplessness washing over his body. He didn’t know what to do; he had never been in a situation before where he was _this_ powerless to help someone that mattered to him. Natasha shook her head.

            “Her body is in shock, she and that baby both are going to die very shortly if we don’t get it out of her _now.”_ She tapped Lanie’s chest with the scepter gently, and her eyes faded from the synthetic cyan to her glossy brown. “Lanie honey, if you can hear me you need to push.”

            Lanie grabbed for Loki’s hand, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m right here, darling. I know it hurts but I need you to focus, okay?”

            Lanie shook her head, as if to clear it, and nuzzled her face into Loki’s shoulder. Her body had never ached the way it did in that moment, and she could feel her child’s head breaking through her dilated cervix. Her body was passed the point of urging her to push, it was doing it for her. She had to bite back a scream as she felt the fabled ring of fire, and Natasha readied a position between her legs. “Loki!”

            Loki shushed her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear as he apologized over and over for not staying with her earlier. This was all his fault…all the horrible things that had happened to her in the past nine months was because she met him, and now he’d brought her passed the point of no return. She was stuck in this life with him for the foreseeable future. He grimaced and pressed a loving kiss to the back of her hand. “I love you so much. You’re doing very well, my Pet. Just a bit more.”

            Lanie bared down hard, pushing Edith’s head to a crowning position as a full head of pitch-black hair pressed against Natasha’s hands. “I see the top of her head, give me one more big push.”

            “I can’t.” She panted, all but going limp in Loki’s arms. The pain was so intense, she felt like her daughter was ripping her insides out. “L-Loki please, I c-can’t…I can’t!” He buried his face into her hair, nipping and kissing at her ear.

            “You can. I know you can. Her head is almost out, darling, I see it. Feel.” Loki took Lanie’s hand and pressed it gently between her legs as her body aggressively forced another push on her. The scream that tore from her lungs was blood curdling, and she grunted loudly as Edith’s head emerged completely from her body. “You feel that? That’s our daughter. I see her face.” He whispered, tears pricking his eyes both in awe and slight shame. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes on, but…

            “She’s…blue.” Natasha whispered. Loki had been afraid of that. Edith was a full-fledged baby Frost Giant if he’d ever seen one. Loki’s fingers curled into her obsidian hair and a tear rolled down his pallid cheeks as Lanie gritted her teeth in pain. Edith’s head turned to the side slowly, and Natasha slid her hands under her head for support.

            “This is the last of it, Lanie. Push hard, you have to pass her shoulders and you’ve got it.” Natasha instructed, watching on in pity as Loki petted his wife’s hair in comfort. Lanie was not doing well; her skin was sallow, and her body shook involuntarily. Her eyes had lost almost all of their shine and skin was ice cold despite the thick perspiration pouring from her pores. Natasha would have never said it to Loki, but Lanie was dying.

            Loki kissed Lanie’s temple, whispering sweet words of encouragement in her ear and attempting to steady his cries as he watched the love of his life struggle to force their daughter from her loins. Edith’s shoulders were broad, and guilt had long sept into Loki’s heart. He knew she was a bigger baby, and whether it was rational or not he felt like it was hid fault. Lanie’s fragile Midgardian body couldn’t carry a Frost Giant to term, couldn’t stretch to accommodate the natural genetic differences. He feared it had put too hard a stain on her, as she shrieked in his arms. She couldn’t catch her breath, panting and crying and clinging to Loki’s armor with the last of her strength as Edith’s shoulders inched out.

            Natasha gave a gentle pull and Edith’s little body slid into her outstretched arms. Lanie instantly relaxed, trying and failing to sit up in her husband’s arms as the tiny cries of her baby filled the morning air. Twilight was breaking across the sky, and Loki reached behind himself to rip off his dark green cloak. He grabbed Edith, wrapping her body in the cape as he brought her up to Lanie’s face, presenting her to her mother as if she were made of solid gold.

            “O-Oh Loki, she’s…she’s beautiful.” She croaked, wiping blood from her daughter’s face with a shaky hand. Loki’s lips trembled, and he fought with all his might against the sob sitting in the back of his throat.

            “She favors me, of course she’s beautiful. Look at that nose.” He exclaimed proudly, eliciting a gentle chuckle from his wife as she nuzzled her face into his neck. Loki was right, she looked almost identical to him in the nose and mouth. Her face, however, was shaped like her mothers, and Lanie traced her tiny chin with her fingers happily.

            “I love you both so much.” She whispered. One of Edith’s tiny hands curled around a loose strand of Loki’s hair, and his eyes bled with more affection than his heart had held in over a thousand years. He hid his face in Lanie’s hair, burying his bliss filled tears away from the rest of the world as he smiled to himself.

            “We love you too.”

            When Lanie didn’t respond, Loki tilted her chin up to look at him, though her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, and his eyebrows creased in immediate worry. “Lanie? Baby?” Loki handed Edith off to Natasha quickly and prodded his wife’s neck with two fingers. No pulse. “No. N-No, Alaine, sweetheart, open your eyes.” He shook her, his hands bringing her face up to his own to press a soft kiss to her lips. Nothing. “Lanie!”

            Natasha delicately placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder, her eyes dimming in sympathy as he watched her cradle Lanie’s lifeless body as if she were his lifeline. “Loki…she’s gone.” Loki shrugged her hand away harshly, all but hissing at her as he rocked Lanie back and forth. He planted his face in her neck, breaking down as he held her there.

            “You promised. You promised me forever.”

            A dark silence fell upon all who stood there, and for a long moment, all that could be heard was the loud wails that rang from Edith’s teeny lungs. No one breathed, no one moved, and though the sun rose higher into the morning, nothing could have dissevered the misery that now hung like a storm above them all.            

 


	39. The Dark World

            The numb ache that spread through Loki’s body was cold and unforgiving. In his long life, the god had seen more hardships than any one human being could ever endure…but this? This was something he couldn’t handle. This had killed him. As he held her there, unmoving, feeling the other’s eyes on him as he wept, he could almost feel his soul leave his body. This is what it truly felt like to be completely and utterly destroyed. Lanie had breathed life into his bitter existence. She’d given him purpose and forgiveness. She’d given him a love that knew no conditions—and a child, a beautiful child who deserved a better life than what she’d been born into. And now? Lanie had taken her last breath in his arms and she took his heart with her.

            Thor had shattered into a million pieces for his brother, who had just now become the Loki Thor remembered growing up with. Thor regretted every step that had led his brother astray. He regretted telling him to know his place. He regretted telling him that his slights were imagined. He regretted ever allowing someone he loved this much to dwindle in the shade of his greatness. Thor had done everything he could to make it right, and yet it was Lanie who had restored his brother to the playful child that his parents had brought home. It was her love and the fruit of her love that had united their dysfunctional family. He knew that the end of her life meant the end of his brother. Loki couldn’t go back to that evil, vile place a second time. The young father no longer had it in him.

The roar that exploded from Thor’s chest was frightening, and he ripped Fury off the ground by his neck. Mjolnir clattered to the floor, and Nick struggled to gasp for air against the iron grip clasped around his throat. “Look at what you’ve done. This is _my_ family. Is _this_ how you wanted to protect your precious Earth?”

            Thor threw Fury at Loki’s feet like a ragdoll. His blue eyes were steely and none of the Avengers had ever seen that much hatred burning behind his expression. “Do with this animal as you see fit, brother.”

            Thor was all but giving Loki permission to end the Directors life, but there was nothing inside of Loki. He couldn’t move, his heart hadn’t been in his chest for nine months, it had been inside of Lanie, and now it returned to Valhalla with her soul. He let out a rage filled scream, though he didn’t dare let go of Lanie’s body. Somewhere in Loki’s mind he knew that she was lost to him, and yet he held her there as if his very love for her was enough to fill her lungs and move her heart. She had just mothered his child, she had given life to another. There was no way that a moment so beautiful and sacred could in its same breath steal from her the future they had planned. He couldn’t comprehend it, and the sound of Edith’s cries only did more to dilute the gods mind. That was his little girl. Lanie had made him a _father_ …but what was a father without a mother? What would Odin have been without Frigga? It was as if the whole of the world had ceased to make sense in one moment. It was a world that Loki in no way wanted to be a part of…a world without his Fair One.  

In the midst of the confusion, the Director took the opportunity to grab the scepter, which lay at Natasha’s side as she attempted to soothe the young Frost Giant crying in her arms. He hopped to his feet, jabbing the pointed end of the staff into Thor’s right eye. When he swung the weapon back toward himself, Thor bellowed in pain as his vision darkened and his eye detached completely from its socket. Thor clutched at the gaping hole where his organ had been, blood running down his hand as he made a disoriented effort to grab the staff from Nick’s hands.

            Emily heard the commotion from across the battlefield as she and Tony continued their assault on Annabel, who had turned out to be more formidable an opponent than either would have guessed. Tony was snarling at his ex and had pinned her to a large piece of rubble. Emily could see Lanie on the ground from where she stood, and she barked at Tony to hold Annabel still. “If there is anything wrong will my best friend or my _niece_ , --”

            Annabel laughed; it was disjointed and unhinged, and she spat blood back in Emily’s face. “Anthony’s little cunt is good and dead. I’m not sorry either, I’ve been waiting a _long_ time to watch her die.”

            A growl ripped from Tony’s chest, but it was Emily whose body reacted. An ice dagger materialized in her hand, and she plunged it deep inside Annabel’s stomach. The other woman coughed loudly, blood oozing from her mouth as Emily twisted the knife downward, slitting the SHIELD agent from groin to sternum. There was a thick, disgusting gurgle settling in the back of Annabel’s throat as she fought to speak, and she grabbed hold of the sides of Tony’s face. “N-No matter what Nick m-made me do, I loved you…and you only ever l-loved _her._ ” She accused, spitting the last word venomously as the color drained from her face and her body stilled. Her insides spilled from her gut and hung there like dirty laundry as Tony struggled to come to terms with what had just happened. He turned wide eyes to Emily, who was already running in Lanie’s direction as fast as her legs could carry her.

               Thor was a mess, his face and arms coated in his own blood as Steve detained the Director. Thor was in it for revenge and wasn’t thinking clearly. Emily grabbed hold of his arm, jerking him to her side as she demanded to know what was wrong with Lanie.  “Thor, forget about Fury for two seconds, _look_ at me!” When the god turned his head slowly, in shame, she clasped her hands over her mouth in shock. Thor shook his head, pointing a trembling finger toward Lanie. It wasn’t him Emily should be worried about. She dropped to her knees beside Loki, very gingerly reaching to feel for a pulse. “Has anyone done CPR?”

            Loki sniffled. “W-What?”

The words had no sooner fallen from his lips when Tony soared by, pushing Emily away from Lanie roughly. “Don’t you touch her!”

“Excuse me? What the hell has gotten into you, Stark?” She barked. He ignored her, shaken by her earlier display of violence and his own failure to protect the woman he loved. He knelt down beside her, reaching to pull her from Loki’s arms.

“Touch her one more time and I’ll kill you where you—”

“If you don’t give her to me right now she’s never going to wake up, is _that_ what you want?!” Tony’s voice was raw and shaking and the look simmering in his brown eyes told Loki everything he needed to know. Tony was in love with her. The god’s arms went limo in defeat and Stark slid her into his own. He freed his hands from their metal confines and began to pump on her chest, pinching her nose and blowing inside her mouth. Loki reached to jerk him off of her in a fit of jealousy, though Emily and Natasha both stayed his hand. “C’mon Lanie, open your eyes for me.” His hands continued to beat against her chest, lips melting against her own as he tried over and over again to breathe life back into her. “Damn it!” She didn’t so much as twitch in his arms, and he desperately allowed his Iron Man suit to wrap around his hands, firing a low wattage volt to her chest.

Loki flinched as her body convulsed around the shock, and he bit his tongue hard as Tony went in for one more go. If this didn’t work, if she was lost to him forever, he was as good as dead. Tony pressed his lips against Lanie’s gingerly one last time, breathing into her as he zapped her chest once more. The whole world seemed to stop as Lanie took one sharp, painful breath, and her frozen hands flailed about as if in frantic search of someone. Tony threaded his fingers through her own, though his smile faltered as she wriggled from his grip.

“Loki?!” It was a frenzied cry, a frightened one, and Loki was back at her side in an instant, his fingers flying into her curls.

“Lanie? I’m right here Kitten, always. Look at me, please, darling.” She gripped his hand hard, managing a small smile as he kissed her face all over.

“W-What happened? Where is our baby, is—is she okay?” All Loki could do in response was clasp Tony on the back, a smile of pure gratitude and slight pity etched into his expression.

“Anthony…thank you. Truly. I couldn’t repay you in a thousand years if I tried. I owe you my life. My everything.”

Tony shrugged it off, refusing to look either of them in the face. “I didn’t do it for you.”

“I know.” Loki admitted softly.

“Can you just promise me one thing?”

“Anything you ask, it’s yours.” Loki promised earnestly, his eyes full of more honesty than had perhaps been there in the entirety of his long, long life.

“Let her train under me when she’s not in Asgard. She’s _so_ smart, she could do literally anything in this world that she wanted, and she threw away her medical degree for _you_. Let her be my apprentice. She’ll be safer with what I can teach her too.”

Loki chewed his lip for a moment, but he was truly in no position to decline. Lanie wouldn’t be alive were it not for him, he wouldn’t forget that. He nodded solemnly, though he bitterly wished it were under better circumstances. He didn’t like the idea much of her being alone with another man who looked on her the way he himself did. “We can come to an arrangement.” Lanie was a little confused about the tension between the two, but Loki wiped all thought of that from her mind as he kissed her long and hard. He rubbed their noses together, tears still spilling from his eyes as he held her there. “Don’t you _ever_ do that to me again.”

Lanie sighed, not bothering to answer as she let out a distressed whimper. “My _baby_.” It was a demand, and Loki knew it. He reached for Edith, delicately placing her back in her mother’s arms as Lanie fell apart around her. “I’m so blessed that she’s safe. My sweet, darling girl.” Lanie snuggled her newborn to her bosom and Loki pulled them both tightly against his chest, his chin resting atop her head as he rocked her.

Thor and Emily had both sighed in relief, exchanging tired glances with one another as they marveled at the destruction around them. “Steve, have you detained Fury, do you have it from here?” Emily asked, narrowing her eyes as Steve slapped a pair of handcuffs on the Directors wrists.

“Yes ma’am. Old Nick here will be going away for a long time, I assure you.”

“We appreciate it, Captain. We must be returning to Asgard, my family requires medical attention and my brother’s coronation is well passed due.” Steve nodded at Thor, though Emily looked uneasy.

“Thor, Lanie needs a blood transfusion, she can’t go anywhere.”

Thor’s face was steely, and he didn’t budge an inch. He was so sick of Earth in that moment he could have screamed. “Mother will take care of her, never you worry.” He grabbed his fiancée’s hand and gave it a firm squeeze, and while she wasn’t so sure, she decided to trust her love. Thor was dependable and mama Frigga always knew what to do.

“Just be sure you’re ready. When the Avengers need you, you’re all a part of this team.” Shattered as their spirits and tired bodies where, Thor nodded to his captain once before calling upon Heimdall. The Avengers were his friends, but the Asgardian royal family needed to do just that—be a family, for the foreseeable future.    

 

After a few hours passed and the madness died down, Loki was left alone with his daughter while Lanie was in recovery. He stood on the balcony that overlooked the kingdom—the balcony he’d married his sweet Lanie on and gazed in quiet contemplation at his new child. Her bright red eyes stared back curiously, cooing at her father in a way that melted his entire heart. “Do you see that, Edith? That entire kingdom will belong to you one day. You’re going to be the most beautiful queen Asgard has ever seen.” A gentle, loving smile curled at the corner of his mouth as he doted on her, scarcely noticing as someone cleared their throat from behind him.

“You make for a proud father, my son. Careful not to be _too_ proud. Advice from someone who made that mistake twice over.” Loki turned to raise an eyebrow at Odin, who had been watching from a wary distance for a long while.

“ _My_ daughter will know her worth. She will know never be ashamed of who or what she is. Not the way you made me.”

Odin sighed heavily, walking forward slowly with a bittersweet look in his eye. He knew there was no point in arguing with Loki about his motivations, not now, and he shook his head sadly. The old god bent to press a gentle kiss to his granddaughter’s forehead, catching Loki completely off guard. As Odin’s fingers lingered on her tiny face, her skin changed from a deep blue-grey to a pale white, and her eyes drained from a vibrant red to her mother’s dark brown. “I am sure she will. But there is a time and a place for honesty, my son. Let her be a normal child for as long as she is able. She’ll be alienated enough with her parents on the throne.”

Loki opened his mouth to object when a nurse approached to let him know that Lanie was awake now. He nodded respectfully to his father and carried Edith to her mother’s bedside. Lanie’s eyebrows immediately furrowed as she looked on her baby, who happily wiggled in her daddy’s arms. Loki pressed a happy kiss to her temple and sat down on the edge of the bed right beside her. “How is my Fair One this eve? Do you feel okay?”

Lanie didn’t answer, her eyes glued to her daughter’s perfect little face. “What have they done to her?”

Loki curled his fingers into her hair and sighed. “It upsets you, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it upsets me. I don’t want her to feel one second of the shame and guilt that you’ve had to feel.”

Loki squeezed her hand and nuzzled into her neck softly as their little one squirmed excitedly between them. “She won’t, my love. I promise you she won’t. Not so long as you or I have breath in our bodies.”

Lanie sighed and curled against her husband, thanking every star in the nine realms that she was alive. She didn’t know what this life she had chosen for herself would have in store, but with her beautiful family at her side, she knew that it would be something magical. Everything was going to work itself out in the end; with Loki Odinson involved, somehow it always did.       


	40. Epilogue

                There was a chill in the atmosphere as the tromp of black boots echoed throughout the cold vacuum of space. Anxiety was nestled in the very fiber of the air, and though the trespasser held himself with a crisp arrogance, there were none in the galaxy who did not fear his host. Not even Odin, Allfather as he was, dared challenge the Titan’s tyranny, and as Asgard’s king stood before the sickeningly familiar throne, his dark blue eyes bore holes into the ground.

                Loki could hear Thanos turn in his chair to face him, though Loki dare not avert his gaze to the face of the monster standing before him. His insides felt hollow, and his heart was pounding in his ears. Loki had not feared a creature this greatly in all his life, and he knelt respectfully at the Titan’s feet. “You’ve come a long way to die, Asgardian.”

                “I come only to return what belongs to you, and a beg for asylum in exchange.”

                The dark laugh that floated towards the god rattled his bones, and he fought every urge he had to flee. He had to remain strong for his family, he had to remember why he was doing this. “Your conceit suits you ill. You come into _my_ home and attempt to bargain with _my_ property?”

                “I mean you no offense, but without what I now hold in my possession you hold no authority over this world. I can give you what you seek; I ask only that in the massacre that follows you allow my wife and child to live. Kill me, for my shortcomings, for my failure, if you must. But Lanie and Edith live, that is the deal.”

                Loki braved a peak at Thanos, whose violet face was as mangled and dreadful as he remembered. The Titan’s bright, glowing cyan eyes were menacing, and the tremor of his snarl shook the throne room to its core. “No _authority_? Child, you would not have come if my very existence did not _demand_ authority. You know what is coming, Loki, son of Laufey, bastard of Jotunheim. That is why you grovel, why you twist your fear into courage as you slink back into my good graces. You know I will stop at nothing to gain what I seek, and all I see before me is a coward of a father whose heart bleeds for a little girl that he cannot protect.”

                Loki did not dare breathe. He bit his lips until they oozed crimson, a pit of self-hatred settling into his stomach as Thanos spoke. He knew he wasn’t wrong, and there was nothing in all nine realms as humiliating. He had risked everything, coming here, knowing good and well that he may not ever return. He had been Asgard’s king for a long six months, and he had started his reign by attempting to negotiate peace between realms by pulling Asgard’s troops out of otherworldly affairs. This included a treaty with Earth, where in so doing he had convinced Rogers that both the scepter and Tesseract would find a safer home with The Collector, some long ways away from both Asgard and Midgard respectively. And here he was, betraying the Avengers, his brother, his home…his love.

                Thanos simmered in his anger for several moments while he pondered, tilting his head at the god in slight pity. It was a truly deplorable sight, this dull creature. So much untapped potential, wasted in sentiment. He thought of his own little one, his Gamora, and he pitied him even further. If nothing else was left human inside the Titan, it was his love for his daughter, and that was perhaps as much empathy as he was capable of. The monster sighed. “Give me the stones, Laufey’s son, and see yourself home to your child. This is my only mercy. I cannot promise you her guaranteed safety in my cleanse of half all life in the universe, only that I will not raise my hand to her nor your wife myself, physically.”

                That was enough for Loki, who pulled the Tesseract from his cape with a shaky hand. He held it outstretched in his left, offering the scepter with his right, and he screwed his eyes shut tightly as Thanos slowly stood and approached him. Thanos snatched both greedily, a wide smile stretching across his hideous features. He crumbled the Tesseract in his hand like it was bread, placing the space stone delicately inside the gauntlet. He then proceeded to snap the top off the scepter, the staff’s handle clattering to the floor as the Titan’s beefy fingers pried the mind stone from its confines. “You have paid your debt. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind.”

                Loki didn’t need to be told twice. He bowed gracefully, turning on his hill on trembling legs as he attempted to strut confidently from Thano’s line of vision. He could feel his nemesis’s eyes on him for a long moment as he walked, and as the being opened his mouth to speak, Loki halted dead in his tracks. “Oh, and Loki,” Thanos drawled, addressing him by first name in a low warning growl. An evil smirk twisted at the corner of his lips as he watched the god sweat, knowing he had the entirety of Asgard right where he wanted it. “Betray me, and I will offer you your daughter’s head on a pike. Am I understood?”

                Loki swallowed hard. “Y-yes, Sir.”

Thanos’s brutish chuckle ricocheted in the silence, every hair on Loki’s body standing on end. “Give your wife my regards.”

**Author's Note:**

> All characters except OC's belong to Marvel


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